Lesson Learned from Charlie Brown

The Halloween holiday has come and gone, the Tootsie Rolls are sticking to the carpet in the kid's rooms, and the skeleton's and spider webs have been packed away for another year. This year when I pack up my Halloween decorations, I will keep with me a lesson learned from none other than Charlie Brown.

Every year my kids and I wait for "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" to air. It's part of our Halloween tradition. We snuggle in my bed, pop some popcorn and watch the Peanuts Gang trick or treat and wait for the Great Pumpkin.

As we were watching it this year, and let's face it, many of us can nearly quote the whole thing start to finish, I was struck by how much cartoons have changed, and, how newer cartoons don't have the staying power of Charlie Brown. Charles Shultz tapped into something special with his cartoons for kids that are filled with adult satire.

What I noticed first was how calm and quiet the Charlie brown cartoons are. Compared to something like say, Spongebob, it was refreshing to see animation that didn't include a character running around screaming his head off, or trying to figure out why his square pants fell down. There is no sexual innuendo like you find in modern animation. The colors were vibrant, the story lines simple, and most importantly, they were appealing to young and old alike.

Maybe I'm reading too much into Shultz's intentions, but as my adult eye took in the story, I noticed what I believe to be a lot of adult humor and satire. For instance, when the kids gather to go trick or treating, all their costumes are basically the same, white sheets, but yet each person is still recognizable by their individual traits. Their masks seemed symbolic, Lucy wearing a Witch face, Charlie Brown's born loser-ish sheet full of holes, Pig Pen's constant dust cloud around him. In my opinion this is representative of society, how deep down we're pretty much the same, but the little things make us recognizable.

Even the class system seems to come into play, as evidenced by the fact that while the other kids get treats, Lucy even gets candy for Linus who is sitting in the pumpkin patch, Charlie Brown gets rocks, one after another. This could be a statement about how we as a society give to others based on our perceptions of how deserving they are, and in many cases class plays part and parcel to that.

Then there's Linus, so hopeful, so confident in his belief in the Great Pumpkin. He's willing to be called an idiot while he stands by what he believes, even when there's no viable reason for him to do so. Charlie Brown's little sister becomes enraged with Linus when she feels duped into missing out on tricks and treats. Oh, how many times in our own adult relationships have we as women felt cheated, or as men how often have you felt that nothing was enough?

I think there is much to be learned from the Peanuts Gang. First, it's how to make a cartoon that is funny, entertaining, and enduring, without making one feel as if they need a trip to the nearest mental health facility after watching, or that as a parent I don't have to censor because of adult innuendo. Second, cartoons can be more than light entertainment, they can be a statement of our society then and now, and provide a glimpse into what and who we are. So sometime this week, take a moment and spend it with the Peanuts Gang, you might learn or see something you didn't expect!