We assumed that growing older, holding a job, and adapting to social life would naturally make us "adults." Yet even past 30 or 40, many of us still find ourselves asking, "Have I really become a proper adult?" A tender prescription has now been published for all the "adult-children" who remain awkward in relationships and lost in life's direction. The new book "When Do We Become Adults?" (21st Century Books) is written by Kim Jin-ha, a professor of French education at Seoul National University.
The book casts the classic "The Little Prince" — long consumed merely as a shallow children's tale — in a new light, as "a novel for wandering adults." The author reminds readers that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry dedicated the work to grown-ups suffering through life, and carefully unpacks the distinctive nuances and philosophical implications embedded in the original French text.
The adults the Little Prince encounters on his journey from asteroid B612 to Earth are, in fact, a bitter self-portrait of modern people. The king obsessed with power, the vain man, the businessman consumed by greed, and those who grasp the world only through numbers all closely resemble us — people who measure life solely by worldly standards. The passage that likens contemporary adults, too overwhelmed by relentlessly busy daily lives to tend to their own existence, to a "burned-out lamplighter" elicits both deep empathy and a heavy heart.
The book's greatest resonance lies in its profound insight into "relationships." The Little Prince's confession — failing in his clumsy first love with the rose and later regretting it — mirrors our own immature past, when we hurt and were hurt by others without truly understanding the meaning of love. Reflecting on the true meaning of "taming" (apprivoiser) as taught by the fox, the author argues that the essence of life — which can neither be touched nor measured — can be discovered only through the "heart," not the head. Becoming a mature adult, the author writes, is not about accumulating perfect knowledge, but about devoting time and sincerity to others and to the world, carving out a path of the heart.
Becoming an adult is not a finished destination one can reach in a single stride. It is a lifelong journey of establishing one's own unshakable values through countless encounters and partings, losses and solitudes. This book does not pressure readers into being a "completed adult." Instead, it gently calls out to immature grown-ups who still falter before their emotions even past 30, offering them deep solace. 320 pages.
