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27CHARLIE BROWN

CHARLIE BROWN

g

ood ol’ Charlie Brown, unlucky at love, unlucky at

school, unlucky at sports. You name it—he finds

some new and unusual ways to fail at it. But no matter

what life throws at the wishy-washy, round-headed kid, he

always tries his best and never gives up.

Charlie Brown eats, sleeps, and breathes baseball, but

his love for the game never leads to success on the field.

Each spring, he manages the world’s worst team through

yet another losing season. His performance as the team’s

pitcher results in some of the most spectacular highlights

ever witnessed on the baseball diamond—for the other

team. His cap, shirt, shoes, and socks are knocked off by

line drives, and he even spends an inning upside down

after a really solid hit. And with the exception of two home

runs in his entire Little League career, he never comes

through with a clutch performance when a close game is

on the line.

His athletic difficulties aren’t confined to a single

season, as he’s equally hapless at all sports. Every year,

Lucy convinces him to attempt a placekick while she

holds a football for him, and every year, she pulls it away

and he lands flat on his back. Even the gentle pastime of

kite flying has proven dangerous for him: He either ends

up hopelessly tangled up in miles of string or stands by

helplessly as the Kite-Eating Tree devours his latest flyer.

Charlie Brown is a thoroughly average student,

although he could probably be an “A” student if not for his

insecurities and performance anxiety. Fear of failure, fear of

success, and, as Lucy once successfully points out, “fear of

everything” always seems to hold him back. His unrequited

crush on his classmate known only as the Little Red-Haired

Girl goes unfulfilled in part because he can never bring

himself to approach her. As he once observes, “They say

opposites attract. . . . She’s really something and I’m really

nothing. . . . How opposite can you get?”

Despite his anxieties, or possibly because of them, his

friends appreciate his company and know that they can

always count on good ol’ Charlie Brown, whether he wins

or not. As Linus says, “Of all the Charlie Browns in the

world, you’re the Charlie Browniest!”

Charles Schulz and his lead character shared many

similarities, and Schulz projected many of his own

insecurities onto Charlie Brown. These universal feelings

of anxiety and melancholy have been embraced by

generations of readers worldwide. “Charlie Brown is the

ultimate loser; that is both his magic and his destiny. If he

weren’t a loser, he’d have no incentive to keep on trying.

The secret is not necessarily to win over adversity, but

never to stop trying. That’s the key, perhaps, to the human

condition. Charlie Brown is the world’s champion tryer. I

think that’s important.”

Charlie Brown rarely caught a break under the pen of

Charles Schulz, and that’s a big part of his universal appeal.

“I know one thing, humor doesn’t come from a happy

situation. Happy is not funny. Funny is when something

happens to someone else and you identify with it and

laugh at the luckless one at the same time. Disasters afflict

Charlie Brown that come to all of us sometime; but to

Charlie, everything bad happens all the time. He never gets

anything right. But a nice kid. I like Charlie Brown.”

opposite: Spot art from strip – Charles M. Schulz

first aPPearanCe

10/02/1950