By Jon Weisman
Sometimes I wonder why Charlie Brown got so much abuse.
I’ve reread a ton of “Peanuts” over the past year with my kids, comics I had practically memorized to begin with, and at a certain point you wonder just what’s going on. You’ll see Charlie Brown with a healthy relationship with several characters, most of all Linus, who is respected throughout the neighborhood and whose addictions to a blanket, thumbsucking and the Great Pumpkin are tolerated by everyone except Lucy (who is intolerant of just about everything).
Charlie Brown is clearly a worthwhile member of the community, not only a good listener but frequently a good advisor and often surprisingly resourceful. There’s little he wouldn’t do for another human being, much less his dog. But then, not infrequently, you’ll see someone like Violet absolutely tee off on him, filling four panels with how worthless he is.
And you realize what’s going on. Charlie Brown doesn’t do well in school or in sports or with red-haired girls or in any other tangible activity. He has been a loser, in the literal sense, all his life. That’s all that matters.
