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If the reader, staring at the sky after finishing this fairy tale, does care whether the sheep has eaten the flower, then, believes Saint-Exupéry, the tale will have served its purpose. The reader will have been "tamed." And for Moralist Saint-Exupéry, man's capacity to be tamed is the test of his goodness.
The Author. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry served as pilot in a French reconnaissance squadron in 1940, last fortnight left the U.S. for active service against the Axis in Africa.