Flight to Arras
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The novel Flug nach Arras is by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and is set in France after the Germans invaded northern France during World War II (" Western Campaign ") and is told from the point of view of Captain Saint-Exupéry. It is a work with obviously strong autobiographical features.
background
The author Saint-Exupéry flew to Arras in northern France on May 23, 1940 . The German Wehrmacht had invaded France via Belgium. As a member of the French reconnaissance force II / 33, he was supposed to provide reconnaissance images for a military counter-attack. Obviously, his mission was a suicide mission. He flew a Bloch MB.174and received escort from five French fighter pilots on his mission. After the armistice was agreed in France, his unit, which had been relocated several times and finally stationed in Algeria, was demobilized. The situation in his country and its division was almost unbearable for the famous writer. Pushed by others, he finally decided to go into exile in New York, where he stayed for about two and a half years before he returned to the war as a pilot. His American publishers urged him to write a text on the situation in France. There was a great lack of understanding about this in the United States. France was reviled and ridiculed.
content
The book Flight to Arras is an eyewitness account, an autobiographical memory and a philosophical reflection in one. The defeat and deep humiliation of his home country France incites Saint-Exupéry to solidarity and to a reserved but passionate patriotism. But he also goes into the weaknesses of his culture and reflects on the wrong paths of humanism that have led to anarchy and totalitarianism.
Despite the absurdity of his assignment, which he believes will mean certain death, Saint-Exupéry is preparing for departure. On his flight to Arras, he ponders deeply about the roots of his culture and the essence of human nature. The rich legacy of culture has been squandered on him by a wrong conception of humanism. Their central values of freedom, equality, brotherhood and charity are threatened if they are only preached but not lived.
The author combines the stages of his flight with memories of his own encounters and experiences and repeatedly digresses into philosophical meditations. One of his most important topics, that man can only free himself in a fight - also against himself -, i.e. through active work, is also a central theme in his flight to Arras . Like the plow to the farmer who provides his daily bread, the airplane is to him a tool for this. When he is met with death before his eyes on Arras, he gains a new consciousness: "When the body falls away, the essential comes to light. Man is nothing but a bundle of relationships." On the return flight he realizes who he got on this plane for. He remembers his own relationships, his comrades, the simplicity of his room and his village Orconte , in which he was first stationed, and of his farmer with whom he had talked and dined . When he returned to his base, he called for a correction of humanism so that man "through the mediocrity of the individual" could again become the keystone of his culture. For this person he is ready to sacrifice his life. In conclusion, he expressed his hope for the moment of his country's rebirth.
Publications
The novel was first published on February 20, 1942 in the United States under the title Flight to Arras , also in the French original under the title Pilote de Guerre . It was also initially allowed to be published in France. The German censors only suppressed a subset in which Hitler was mentioned. After the press had dealt extensively with the work, the Germans put it on the index. Still, the book continued to circulate underground.
Web links
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- ↑ The little prince online: Flight to Arras - A novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, contribution by Alexander Varell
- ^ Robinson, Joy D. Marie: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Writer, aviator and adventurer. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich, 1993, ISBN 3-453-06081-4 , p. 179