Night Flight (novel)

Night Flight is a novel by French writer Antoine de Saint- Exupéry, published in December 1930.

Action

The main character, the mail pilot Fabien must fight in one night during a thunderstorm over Argentina in his machine for his life. On the ground, followed Rivière, his superior, who eventually led him to take this risky flight, the radio traffic and its responsibility is aware of his superior. Also Fabien's wife followed her husband's troubled flight. The situation for Fabien is more and more hopeless, in the end he is flying with an almost empty fuel tank above the storm that covers the entire South American continent. Sometime breaks the radio contact with the ground, and in the Central Rivière can only calculate when Fabien will probably crash. This flight represents the worldview Rivières, who had until now, believed in the " Réglement ", the strict adherence to flight plan in question. The fate Fabien is not told, but the plot leaves no doubt that Fabien will die.

Interpretation

The central theme of the work is the question of whether there is an instance (the " Réglement ," the flight plan ), which is a higher monetary value than a human life.

At the time of origin of the pioneer days of aviation, airlines were always willing to take risks and tried by night flying to outdo the competing transport, such as railways and waterways. But the technology was not yet mature for night flights so far and presented each flight an incalculable risk, since the survival of pilots often hung only by favorable weather from.

Saint- Exupéry was even mail pilot and has processed his experiences and doubts as to the meaning of this deadly contest in this novel.

The clearest are those doubts in the person of the flight director Rivière, who believes, first, that Fabien is essential to arrive on time so as not to jeopardize the timeliness of the connecting flight, and then it looks collapse his worldview, as he realizes that he Fabien in has sent the death: "We do not live forever, but we do not want to see everything and do all things suddenly lose all meaning. Then shows the emptiness that surrounds us. "

Generally, readers learn the most about the inner workings Rivières who repeatedly philosophizes that night. Examples are:

• "There are no solutions in life. There are forces in motion that you have to create the solutions follow. "
• " What goes all over in the amount of one. Many, perhaps, who did not notice yet and the customer bears about the unusual one. And without knowing it. "

In contrast, endures Fabien, the pilot, the situation with calm, almost stoic composure, and even enjoy the light of the stars, as he breaks through the dense cloud cover and, indeed doomed to death, but for the time being to escape the storm, flying over the storm. He always keeps the socket and endures his fate with dignity. It thus corresponds to a widespread idea of ​​a hero.

Public response

The work, the second novel by Antoine de Saint- Exupéry after Südkurier (1929 ), was a great success. 1931, it was awarded the Prix Femina.

The novel was filmed in 1933 with, among others, Clark Gable and Helen Hayes.

However, there was also some criticism, especially from pilot circles, discussed their role and the director, for whose character Didier Daurat the director of the French airline had served as a model. Thank the presentation seemed too tragic and heroic. This criticism crashed Saint- Exupéry, who was very sensitive in this respect, in a nine- year-long literary crisis. It was not until 1939 he published another book ( Wind, Sand and Stars ).