Wind, Sand, and Stars: Analysis of Major Characters
"Wind, Sand, and Stars" is a reflective work by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry that captures his experiences as a pioneering aviator in the early 20th century. The narrative explores major characters, including Saint-Exupéry himself, who shares profound insights into the challenges of flying during a time when aviation was fraught with peril and uncertainty. One notable character is Mermoz, a fellow aviator whose remarkable accomplishments in aviation, including crossing the South Atlantic, highlight both the dangers and the spirit of adventure that defined early flight. Another significant figure is Guillamot, the author's mentor and close friend, known for his exceptional courage and survival skills during harrowing experiences in the Andes. Through these characters, the text delves into themes of friendship, bravery, and the human spirit's resilience in the face of adversity. Saint-Exupéry's narrative is characterized by a poetic style that elevates the simplicity of his adventures into reflections on life, wisdom, and the bonds formed through shared challenges. The work invites readers to appreciate not only the technical aspects of aviation but also the emotional and philosophical dimensions of the journeys undertaken by its characters.
Wind, Sand, and Stars: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
First published: Terre des hommes, 1939 (English translation, 1939)
Genre: Novel
Locale: The Pyrenees, the Sahara, and the Andes
Plot: Autobiographical
Time: 1926–1936
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (sahn-tayg-zew-pay-ree), a French pioneer of early aviation. Beginning in 1926, when he began to fly the mails across the Pyrenees, the author had many adventures. In this random novelistic account of eight years as a pilot, Saint-Exupéry tells of some of his experiences, without a trace of melodrama or pride. Planes still had open cockpits when he began to fly, and in low visibility, pilots often would thrust their heads out because they could not see through the windscreen. Without radio, becoming lost was not uncommon. Once, a thick cloud cover forced the pilot lower and lower, until he crashed at 170 miles per hour into a gentle slope at the top of a barren plateau. Miraculously, the pilot and mechanic survived the crash, but they nearly died in their 124-mile trek across a blazing desert, to be saved at last by a camel-riding Bedouin. Another time, the pilot was caught in a cyclone and was sucked down to earth at 150 miles per hour. He battled to stay airborne, 60 feet above water, against a headwind of more than 100 miles per hour. During a heroic twenty-minute struggle, he managed to advance only 100 yards. Nearly exhausted, he finally succeeded in escaping the storm. The author writes of these and other such ordeals with a grace, beauty, and sensitivity that heightens the experiences into a poetry of wisdom. In 1944, Saint-Exupéry failed to return while on a reconnaissance mission over the Mediterranean in World War II.
Mermoz, a friend and fellow aviator. He surveyed the Casablanca-Dakar line across the Sahara, the South American line between Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile, and was the first to cross the South Atlantic in a hydroplane. He was also the first, in 1931, to carry the mails from Toulouse, France, to Buenos Aires. He survived a dozen crashes, capture by the Moors in the Sahara, and getting caught by the tails of tornadoes. Once, he and his mechanic were forced down at an altitude of 12,000 feet on a mesa in the Andes that had sheer drops on all sides. To escape, they rolled the plane down an incline until it reached the precipice, went off into the air, picked up enough speed to respond to the controls, and swept down to the valley below. Mermoz cleared the desert, the mountains, the sea, and the night for safer air travel. After a dozen years of such pioneering, he went down one night over the South Atlantic and did not return.
Guillamot (gee-yah-mah), the author's closest friend and mentor. Guillamot taught the author the secrets of flying and finding one's way that no text or map could. He flew the routes surveyed by Mermoz. On one flight, he became lost in a snowstorm over the Andes. Forced down when his fuel ran out, he made himself a shelter, in which he stayed for two days and two nights until the storm blew over. He then walked for five days and four nights across the treacherous Andes without an ice-ax, ropes, or provisions, his hands and feet and knees bleeding in a temperature of twenty degrees below zero. When he finally emerged from that world of crags and ice and snow, he was near death, his face blotched and swollen, hands numb and useless, and feet frozen into mere deadweights. In the author's eyes, Guillamot was a friend of extraordinary courage and moral greatness.