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Antoine de Saint Exupery

by Apolline from Villeurbanne

Antoine de Saint-Exup�ry et Le Petit Prince (www.yanndarc.com)
Antoine de Saint-Exup�ry et Le Petit Prince (www.yanndarc.com)

Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a tremendous man whom I consider as a hero. Besides having contributed to improve the lives of human beings by risking his life, he tried to experiment lots of arts and techniques known at his time and to use them to his liking.

Born in 1900 in Lyon, France, he had a happy childhood. In the summer 1912, he flew for the first time, and on that day, his calling for flying began, which he actually fulfilled when he entered Aeropostale in 1926. At that time, he was in love with the one and only obsession of the Aeropostale aviators: "The mail must go." He was first a flight engineer, and then he ended up being a pilot on the Toulouse-Casablanca-Dakar airline. After that he was a flight-head at Cap-Juby, when he discovered the desert and ended up understanding "this mirage and this amazing silence." One of his assignments was to help pilots and victims of accidents. So Antoine de Saint-Exupery won fame by his bravery and his devotion: he was ready to die, to save other people's lives, and to make sure mail arrived safe and sound.

He was also the man who discovered many technical inventions for aviation, and so registered fifteen patents. But he never received any money for his inventions. Moreover, Antoine de Saint Exupery was a literary man. He worked as a journalist, and his articles were successful. He spoke, in particular, about the Civil War in Spain, without taking sides for Francoists or Republicans. "Le Petit Prince" is his best known novel, which is one of a kind: it is a political and philosophical tale, which looks like an allegory on life.

Recently, on the last week of March 2008, a German pilot's revelations permitted to clear up the mystery about Antoine de Saint-Exupery's death: on the 31st of July 1944, the aviator flew from a military airfield in Corsica for his last trip: he was shot down by a German pilot.

As a conclusion, I think that Antoine de Saint-Exupery is a real hero, because his life was out of the ordinary, and he brought a lot to human kind. I admire him first for his bravery and devotion: it was very dangerous to be an aviator at that time, and he did that, not only for his passion for aviation, but also to save other people's lives. Besides, this man was very bright: he was, as I said before a wonderful aviator and inventor, but also a writer and a journalist.

Page created on 5/9/2008 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 5/9/2008 12:00:00 AM

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