Chapter XII Summary

The third planet the little prince visits is inhabited by a drunk. This "tippler" drinks to forget the shame of drinking. The little prince finds this absurd and does not spend much time there.

Chapter XII Analysis

Here is another example of a metaphor so simple and elegant it is easy to miss the complexity of its content. When we attempt to hide from our problems, we make them worse, not better. The tippler drinks because he's ashamed. He's ashamed because he drinks. But something made him drink before his drinking began to shame him. It is this issue the tippler has never resolved. This adds a new twist to the theme begun in the chapter about the baobabs. In that metaphor, the reader is asked to consider how important it is to "nip things in the bud," so to speak...