It was written during a period when Saint-Exupéry fled to North America subsequent to the Fall of France during the Second World War , witnessed first hand by the author and captured in his memoir Flight to Arras .
The adult fable, according to one review, is actually "...an allegory of Saint-Exupéry's own life—his search for childhood certainties and interior peace, his mysticism, his belief in human courage and brotherhood, and his deep love for his wife Consuelo but also an allusion to the tortured nature of their relationship."
Though ostensibly styled as a children's book , The Little Prince makes several observations about life and human nature.