The asteroid chapters, where the prince visits a series of small planets each inhabited by a single strange adult, function as a sequence of brief character studies, each satirizing a specific human tendency toward self-importance, obsession, or denial. Teaching this section as a coherent character study unit, rather than a loosely connected series of episodes, helps students see the deliberate pattern Saint-Exupéry is building.

The king, who claims authority over the stars despite being utterly alone on his planet, represents the emptiness of power without genuine purpose or connection. The businessman, endlessly counting stars he can never actually use or enjoy, represents obsessive accumulation disconnected from any real meaning. Each character is drawn with just enough specific, memorable detail to function as effective, quick satire.

The vain man, who wants only to be admired, and the drunkard, who drinks to forget the shame of drinking, form a particularly pointed pair, since the drunkard's circular logic satirizes self-destructive avoidance in a way that resonates even with younger readers who may not fully grasp the adult context but can still recognize the absurdity of the pattern being described.

The geographer, the final and most complex of these adult figures, differs from the others in that he directly sends the prince toward Earth, making him a transitional figure between the satirical asteroid sequence and the more emotionally significant Earth chapters that follow. His character deserves separate discussion from the others given this distinct narrative function.

Structuring the Character Study

A useful structure for this unit assigns small groups of students to become the resident expert on one asteroid character, researching and presenting that character's specific flaw and its real world parallel before the whole class discusses the pattern across all the characters together. This jigsaw style approach efficiently covers a section with several distinct, fairly self-contained episodes.

• The king: power without purpose or genuine subjects to rule
• The vain man: the need for constant admiration disconnected from real achievement
• The drunkard: self-destructive avoidance and circular denial
• The businessman: obsessive accumulation without real use or enjoyment
• The lamplighter: blind devotion to duty even when the duty itself has become meaningless

Essay Prompts on the Adult Characters

Strong essay prompts on this section ask students to move beyond simply identifying each character's flaw into arguing why Saint-Exupéry chose this particular sequence of characters and what pattern their combination suggests about adult behavior more broadly. A prompt asking students to identify which asteroid character represents the most dangerous or damaging flaw, and defend that ranking with evidence, pushes toward genuine argumentative writing.

Another productive prompt asks students to consider why the prince, rather than the narrator, is the one who meets and judges these adult characters, connecting this section back to the book's broader theme of childlike clarity seeing through adult self-deception more easily than adult perspective can see through itself.

Grading Character Analysis Essays

Essays on this section should be graded for how precisely students can articulate each character's specific flaw, since vague descriptions like "the businessman is greedy" miss the more precise point that his flaw is disconnection from genuine use or enjoyment of what he accumulates, not simple greed. Rewarding this precision in the rubric pushes students toward more careful, text based analysis.

For essays that compare multiple characters, grading should also reward genuine synthesis, meaning the essay identifies a real pattern or connection across characters rather than simply listing several flaws side by side without drawing any larger conclusion about what the sequence as a whole suggests.

Connecting to Modern Satire

This section pairs well with a broader discussion of satire as a literary technique, since the asteroid characters function as clear, accessible examples of how an author uses exaggeration to critique real human behavior. Introducing or reinforcing the vocabulary of satire here gives students a foundation that will serve them well when they encounter more complex satirical texts later in their education.

Asking students to identify a modern equivalent for one of the asteroid characters, drawn from contemporary life or media, makes the satirical pattern feel immediately relevant and gives teachers a useful way to check whether students have genuinely understood each character's specific flaw well enough to apply it to a new context.