SOCI 121 Paper: Little Prince and Hana's Suitcase as Culture

This paper analyzes 'The Little Prince' by Saint-Exupéry and 'Hana's Suitcase' by Karen Levine, exploring how these works reflect cultural values, societal norms, and historical events. The paper delves into the plots and characters of both stories, examining themes of identity, war, and the impact of historical events like the Holocaust. The student integrates sociological concepts such as cultural identity, social interaction, and the influence of literature on shaping individual and collective understanding of the world. The analysis highlights how the stories provide insights into human experiences across different cultural contexts, emphasizing the role of narratives in constructing meaning and fostering empathy. The paper also discusses the importance of these stories in educational contexts, particularly in promoting awareness of historical atrocities and cultural diversity. The sociological terms, ideas, concepts, or theories are highlighted throughout the paper to support the analysis.

Running Head: PAPER ON THE LITTLE PRINCE AND HANA'S SUITCASE AS
REFLECTIONS OF CULTURE
Paper on The Little Prince and Hana's Suitcase as reflections of culture
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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PAPER ON THE LITTLE PRINCE AND HANA'S SUITCASE AS REFLECTIONS OF
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Introduction
The manner in which children are schooled reveal the cultural diagnostic. Separate
schools become symbols of proclamation for the public in order to fulfill the cultural
aspirations of every group. From various studies and research, it have been found that there is
an interaction that takes place between children and stories. For example, it has been said that
we as human beings are “at least in part, what we have read”. In this very similar manner, the
stories that are narrated to children by us and with the help of these narratives, the children
are provided with an agency to make sense out of the world in which they live. The
contribution of such narratives include a form of mapping and contribute to the sense of
identity for the children. The nature of this identity is very much personal and social at the
same time. Although it might seem to be strange, the above stated situation is definitely
obvious. Stories contain in them the ability to enable children to develop their social and
physical world experience. Hence it is also clear that they play important roles in the process
of articulation. The richness of literature since the society consists of numerous styles as well
as types in order to maintain the personal as well as social identity.
Discussion
When children grow up in any particular society of the world, they come to learn
about themselves, followed by the relationship that is shared between the children and the
rest of the world. The process also includes parts where they learn who they are and who they
are not. Some aspects also teach them that they are different from the children who exist in
various other geographical, historical, and social environments (Marriott, 1998). Just as a
coin has two sides, there are also circumstances where the children learn that they are not
similar to the children of their neighbors- the concept of “us” and “other” are planted as a
very young age. Such cases also lead to the formation of an assumption that the

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discrimination is not limited to them being different, but also the other to be someone who is
greater than the other, or even less threatening (Marriott, 1998).. However, it might be
difficult to understand the causes behind the scenario- it has a lot of historical and cultural
issues. In order to further elucidate the importance of culture and its contribution through
children’s literature, especially when it is The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry, and Hana’s
Suitcase by Karen Levine.
Hana’s Suitcase- plot and summary
“Hana’s Suitcase” by Karen Levine includes two plots that contribute to the
development of the storyline. One of the perspectives is that of modern historian Fumiko
Ishioka who made the discovery of Hana. The other perspective consists of the biography of
Hana, which eventually is taken up by her brother George who survived the holocaust.
Ishioka put Hana’s story together as an attempt to educate the children in Japan about
the Holocaust. In this attempt of trying to unearth the life of Hana, Levine, as an author,
conveys to her readers about the life of Hana that existed before the war broke out followed
by the drastic changes that were brought about in the small family of the Brady’s because of
their Jewish identity (Levine, 2016). The story of Hana’s Suitcase is strewn with instances of
extreme cruelty, sadness, and despair. However, it also shows glimpses of the pleasant and
happy life of the Brady’s before the war broke out. The significance of the plot construction
lies in the gradual development of two sides of the story that contribute to the awaiting sense
of anticipation- instead of creating confusion for the readers, the two plots side by side, and
hence end up complementing each other as the story reaches its culmination. Ishioka’s
mission was to enlighten the younger generation of Japan about the World War II, along with
the holocaust for which she took humongous effort in order to find out about the various

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displays in the museums all over the world that are solely built for the remembrance of the
holocaust and its survivors (Levine, 2016).
The next shift in the plot takes the readers to the life of Hana, her brother George, and
her parent along with their ordinary but happy life in the little town of Nove Mesto na
Morave, Czechoslovakia. The periodic alteration in the narration of Levine keeps up the
element of suspense in the story of “Hana’s Suitcase” (Levine, 2016). The final instance of
bifurcation takes place as the readers come to know about the death of Hana in the
concentration camp as George takes up the narrative. Ishioka achieves success by discovering
her brother George who was the only survivor of the holocaust from the Brady family. Her
success was also in the form of honour to the memory of Hana as the children of the Small
Wings club were finally able to see George and interact with him. The plot structure reaches
its fulfilment in the realization of George as he understood that even though a long span of
fifty-five years have passed between the horrible atrocities of the holocaust and the present
day, his little sister is still being remembered by the world. The poignancy of the theme of
Hana’s Suitcase lies in the remembrance of the fact that among the millions of Jews killed in
the holocaust, more than a million were children (Levine, 2016).
It is important to note that documentation of the firsthand experience of the Second
World War and the holocaust were also done by a young Jewish girl, Anne Frank, whose
work was published posthumously in the name of “The Diary of a Young Girl”. Hana’s
Suitcase is different because of its method of narration as it puts forth two sides of the story.
The readers come to know about the cruelty and atrocities of the Nazis, where the suitcase of
Hana becomes a symbol of her tragedy (Levine, 2016).

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The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry
The Little Prince, although was written in the country of France, it is definitely one of
the best loved and favored book in many languages. However, while considering the plot and
its characterization, we found that the meaning that the author meant to convey through it, the
purpose or morally sound, the book does not provide any sense of transparency. Ever since it
was released, it has baffled the critics and puzzled the readers. The basic storyline involves
the survival of an aviator who got drowned in the sandy desert, but even after facing
numerous hurdle that came along his way of survival, he comes across encounters that
involve a strange person who can neither be termed as a boy, nor as a full grown man. The
next section of the story involves his only anchor in life- the solitary rose. However, in times
of deepest moments of loneliness, he has taken refuge in the birds who could perhaps convey
to his original home planet.
It took numerous years—and numerous readings—for this pursuer to start to
comprehend that the book is a war story. Not a purposeful anecdote of war, rather, a tale of it,
where the focal feelings of contention—disengagement, dread, and vulnerability—are
mitigated uniquely by cozy discourse and love. In any case, the "Petit Prince" is a war story
in an extremely exacting sense, as well—everything about its creation needs to don't simply
with the beginning of war however with the "weird destruction" of France, with the
experience of Vichy and the Occupation. Holy person Exupéry's feeling of disgrace and
disarray at the demolition drove him to make a tale of theoretical thoughts set against explicit
loves. Right now, sang in oblivious congruity with the other extraordinary artists of the war's
misfortune, from J. D. Salinger—whose incredible post-war story, "For Esmé—with Love
and Squalor" gives us moral breakdown facilitated uniquely by the discourse of a clear
youngster—to his contemporary Albert Camus, who likewise took from the war the need to

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take part in a never-ending fight "between each man's joy and the sickness of deliberation,"
which means the demonstration of removing genuine feeling from typical life.
Sociological investigations of writing and scholarly practice appear to have
blossomed during the 1970s and peaked during the 1980s, with the production of an
assortment of papers regarding the matter (Marriott, 1998). however there appears to have
been minimal sociological research on writing or books previously or after. Except for
Griswold, who added to the Desan assortment and who keeps on expounding on the human
science of writing, scarcely any sociologists right now look to books – at any rate, in an
efficient way – for information on social practice or social change. In 1992, writing in the
Annual Review of Sociology, Griswold depicted the human science of writing as being "like
a single adaptable cell: it comes up short on a firm structure, however has streamed along in
certain bearings nevertheless"(Marriott, 1998). Taking note of that it had delivered
noteworthy hypothetical discoveries, she really wanted to make reference to her longstanding
impression that the field was not composed around key inquiries or discussions like "an
appropriate field should be"(Marriott, 1998). At the point when I started my own exploration
venture, somewhere in the range of fifteen years after the fact, I got myself concurring with
Griswold's perception. Absolutely, there has been magnificent work done on the subjects of
mainstream society and social creation. Scholars have shown the different ways that social
businesses and markets work: (Corsaro, 2017) show how changes in the advancement and
assorted variety of exhibitions in inhabitant theaters rely upon every auditorium's size, area,
and financing condition; Peterson and Berger exhibit how changes in recorded music are
affected by the market grouping of record organizations; and, Powell, moving into the
domain of book distributing, shows how the birth and consequent life odds of a scholarly
original copy are fundamentally influenced by the thick trap of social collaborations among
editors and key individuals from the scholarly network. However none of these conspicuous

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social sociologists is utilizing books, substantially less works of fiction, to ask sociological
research questions. I am enticed to contend that, through the mid-1990s, the absolute
generally sociological inquire about on books can be found in crafted by Janice Radway, a
teacher of writing (Corsaro, 2017).
Conclusion
Around a similar time, Griswold herself was utilizing books to investigate the effect
of creation frameworks on the substance of abstract work. Her exploration proposes that
British distributers are bound to distribute Nigerian books with a 'conventional' town topic
than those with an urban subject, despite the fact that Nigerian authors compose more
prominent quantities of books that attention on contemporary urban social issues. Since
distributers are choosing books for British and American crowds right now, she contends, the
feeling that these perusers have of Nigeria is of country networks battling with issues of
convention and advancement. Such subjects try not to speak to the encounters of Nigerian
writers to such an extent as the inclinations of British distributers. Both Griswold and
Radway recommend that there are legitimate and profitable motivations to contemplate
works of fiction. Their works contend that Nigerian books and American romance books,
individually, contain data about the public activities of their peruses and distributers.
Identified with crafted by perusing books to surface sociological data, however, is the need to
recognize portrayals of social imbalance from difficulties to it. Griswold's work lays the basis
for mine, yet isn't spurred by a similar arrangement of research

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Reference
Corsaro, W. A. (2017). The sociology of childhood. Sage publications.
de Saint-Exupéry, A. (2018). The Little Prince: A new translation by Michael Morpurgo.
Random House.
Gopnik, A. (2014). The Strange Triumph of “The Little Prince”. The New Yorker. Retrieved
14 March 2020, from https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-strange-
triumph-of-the-little-prince.
Hintz, C., & Tribunella, E. L. (2019). Reading children’s literature: A critical introduction.
Broadview Press.
Levine, K. (2016). Hana's Suitcase: The Quest to Solve a Holocaust Mystery. Crown Books
for Young Readers.
Marriott, S. (1998). Culture, Identity and Children's Literature. The Irish Journal of Education
/ Iris Eireannach an Oideachais, 29, 9-20. Retrieved March 14, 2020, from
www.jstor.org/stable/30071602