Simplicity and immediacy are the characteristics that endear this short story to all readers. There is a great deal of dialogue, with many repetitions, especially on the part of the Prince, who as a true child never lets go of an idea once he has taken hold of it. His words reveal him to be a child, yet a child who has the wisdom of unaffected simplicity. The various scenes in which animals, flowers, and people interact with him are brief and to the point. Often satiric of abuses in society, the passages stand on their own, without any need of explanation.

The narrator-pilot speaks as an adult, yet as a father figure and friend to the Prince who is so in need of human companionship that he has left his planet in search of people. The use of allegory is direct and unaffected, so that the reader...