Editing Peanuts (section)

==Characters==
[[File:Robensstraße Aachen offizielles Peanuts-Mural Vicki Scott März 2021 (2).jpg|thumb|Official [[mural]] of the ''Peanuts'' in [[Aachen]]]]

{{Main|List of Peanuts characters}}

===Charlie Brown===
{{Main|Charlie Brown}}

Charlie Brown is a young boy. He is the main character, acting as the center of the strip's world and serving as an [[everyman]].{{sfn|Boxer|2015}}{{sfn|Eco|1985}}{{sfn|Warner|2018}} While seen as decent, considerate, and reflective, he is also awkward, deeply sensitive, and said to suffer from an [[inferiority complex]]. Charlie Brown is a constant failure: he can never win a ballgame; he can never successfully fly a kite.{{sfn|Eco|1985}}{{sfn|Yawar|2015}} His sense of determination regardless of the certainty of failure can be interpreted as either self-defeating stubbornness or admirable persistence. When he fails, however, he experiences pain and anguish through self-pity.{{sfn|Yawar|2015}} The journalist [[Christopher Caldwell (journalist)|Christopher Caldwell]] observed this tension between Charlie Brown's negative and positive attitudes, stating: "What makes Charlie Brown such a rich character is that he's not purely a loser. The self-loathing that causes him so much anguish is decidedly not self-effacement. Charlie Brown is optimistic enough to think he can earn a sense of self-worth."{{sfn|Caldwell|2000}} Schulz named Charlie Brown after a colleague of his while working at [[Art Instruction Schools|Art Instruction]], whose full name was Charlie Francis Brown.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=38}}

Readers and critics have explored the question as to whether Schulz based Charlie Brown on himself. This question often carried the suggestion that the emotionally sensitive and depressed behavior of Charlie Brown drew from Schulz's own life or childhood experiences.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=5}}{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=44}}{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=66}} Commenting on the tendency of these conclusions being drawn, Schulz said in a 1968 interview, "I think of myself as Charles Schulz. But if someone wants to believe I'm really Charlie Brown, well, it makes a good story."{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=62}} He explained in another interview that the comic strip as a whole is a personal expression, and so it is impossible to avoid all the characters presenting aspects of his personality.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=66}} Biographer [[David Michaelis]] made a similar conclusion, describing Charlie Brown as simply representing Schulz's "wishy-washiness and determination".{{sfn|Michaelis|2007|p=258}} Regardless, some profiles of Schulz confidently held that Charlie Brown was based on him.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=65}}

===Snoopy===
{{Main|Snoopy}}

Snoopy is a dog, who later in the development of the strip would be described as a [[beagle]].{{sfn|Michaelis|2007|p=387}} While generally behaving like a real dog and having a non-speaking role, he connects to readers through having human thoughts.{{sfn|Michaelis|2007|p=389}}{{sfn|Inge|2010|p=172}} Despite acting like a real dog some of the time, Snoopy possesses many different anthropomorphic traits. He frequently walks on his hind legs and is able to use tools, including his typewriter. He introduces fantasy elements to the strip by extending his identity through various alter egos. Many of these alter egos, such as a "world-famous" attorney, surgeon or secret agent were seen only once or twice, although others (such as the [[World War I]] flying ace, or the sunglasses-wearing "Joe Cool") were featured many times over a period of years.{{sfn|Michaelis|2007|p=390}} His character is a mixture of innocence and egotism; he possesses childlike joy, while on occasion being somewhat selfish.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=59}}{{sfn|Michaelis|2007|p=391}} He has an arrogant commitment to his independence but is often shown to be dependent on humans.{{sfn|Michaelis|2007|p=390}}{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=59}} Schulz was careful in balancing Snoopy's life between that of a real dog and that of a fantastical character.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=50}} While the interior of Snoopy's small doghouse is described in the strip as having such things as a library and a pool table and being adorned with paintings of [[Andrew Wyeth|Wyeth]] and [[Vincent van Gogh|Van Gogh]], it was never shown: it would have demanded an inappropriate kind of [[suspension of disbelief]] from readers.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=25}}

===Linus and Lucy===
{{Main|Linus van Pelt|Lucy van Pelt}}

Linus and Lucy are siblings; Linus is the younger brother, and Lucy is the older sister.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=70}}

Lucy is bossy, selfish and opinionated, and she often delivers commentary in an honest albeit offensive and sarcastic way.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=47}}{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=196}} Schulz described Lucy as full of misdirected confidence, but having the virtue of being capable of cutting right down to the truth.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=52}} He said that Lucy is mean because it is funny, particularly because she is a girl: he posited that a boy being mean to girls would not be funny at all, describing a pattern in comic strip writing where it is comical when supposedly weak characters dominate supposedly strong characters.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=45}} Lucy at times acts as a psychiatrist and charges five cents for psychiatric advice to other characters (usually Charlie Brown) from her "psychiatric booth", a booth parodying the setup of a [[lemonade stand]].{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=89}} Lucy's role as a psychiatrist has attracted attention from real-life individuals in the field of psychology; the psychiatrist Athar Yawar playfully identified various moments in the strip where her activities could be characterized as pursuing medical and scientific interests, commenting that "Lucy is very much the modern doctor".{{sfn|Yawar|2015}}

Linus is Charlie Brown's most loyal and uplifting friend and introduces intellectual, spiritual and reflective elements to the strip. He offers opinions on topics such as literature, art, science, politics and [[theology]]. He possesses a sense of morality and ethical judgment that enables him to navigate topics such as faith, intolerance, and depression. Schulz enjoyed the adaptability of his character, remarking he can be "very smart" as well as "dumb".{{sfn|Michaelis|2007|pp=252–253}} He has a tendency of expressing lofty or pompous ideas that are quickly rebuked.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=47}} He finds psychological security from [[thumb sucking]] and [[comfort object|holding a blanket for comfort]]. The idea of his "security blanket" originated from Schulz's own observation of his first three children, who carried around blankets. Schulz described Linus's blanket as "probably the single best thing that I ever thought of". He was proud of its versatility for visual humor in the strip, and with how the phrase "security blanket" entered the dictionary.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=7}}{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=91}}

===Peppermint Patty and Marcie===
{{Main|Peppermint Patty|Marcie}}

Peppermint Patty and Marcie are two girls who are friends. They attend a different school than Charlie Brown, on the other side of town, and so represent a slightly different social circle from the other characters.{{sfn|Boylan|2019}}

Peppermint Patty is a [[tomboy]] who is forthright and loyal and has what Schulz described as a "devastating singleness of purpose".{{sfn|Inge|2010|p=174}} She frequently misunderstands things, to the extent that her confusion serves as the premise of many individual strips and stories; in one story she prepares for a "skating" competition, only to learn with disastrous results that it is for [[roller skating]] and not [[ice skating]].{{sfn|Inge|2010|p=94}} She struggles at school and with her homework and often falls asleep in school. The wife of Charles Schulz, Jean Schulz, suggested that this is the consequence of how Peppermint Patty's single father works late; she stays awake at night waiting for him. In general, Charles Schulz imagined that some of her problems were from having an absent mother.{{sfn|Schulz|2016}}

Marcie is bookish and a good student.{{sfn|Boylan|2019}} Schulz described her as relatively perceptive compared to other characters, stating that "she sees the truth in things"{{sfn|Inge|2010|p=174}} (although she perpetually addresses Peppermint Patty as "sir"). The writer Laura Bradley identified her role as "the unassuming one with sage-like insights".{{sfn|Bradley|2015}}

===Supporting characters===
{{Main|List of Peanuts characters}}

In addition to the core cast, other characters appeared regularly for a majority of the strip's duration:
* '''[[Sally Brown]]''' is the younger sister of Charlie Brown. She has a habit of fracturing the English language to comical effect.{{sfn|Inge|2010|p=175}} She reacts negatively to school and homework due to dealing with dogmatic memorization and obeying ambiguous instructions. She otherwise confidently delivers speeches in oral exams, using wordplay and puns while framing her topics with theatrics and suspense.{{sfn|Wong|2018}}
* '''[[Schroeder (Peanuts)|Schroeder]]''' is a boy who is fanatic about [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]. Each year he celebrates Beethoven's birthday, though on occasion he does forget and struggles to forgive himself. In this relatively innocent role, he serves as an outlet for the expressions of other characters.{{sfn|Inge|2010|p=82}} He most recognizably appears in the strip playing music on his toy piano,{{sfn|Michaelis|2007|p=254}}{{sfn|Inge|2010|pp=158–159}} as the catcher on Charlie Brown's baseball team and the romantic foil to Lucy's unrequited affections who is always after a kiss especially when it's Beethoven's birthday.
* '''[[Pig-Pen]]''' is a boy who is physically dirty, normally appearing with a cloud of dust surrounding him. Schulz acknowledged that the scope of his role is limited, but he continued to make appearances because of his popularity with readers.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=96}}
* '''[[Franklin (Peanuts)|Franklin]]''' is an [[African American]] boy who first appeared at the suggestion of a reader following the [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]] Since it was Schulz's intention to achieve this without being patronizing, he is a relatively normal character who mainly reacts to the oddness of other characters.{{sfn|Gertler|2012}}
* '''[[Woodstock (Peanuts)|Woodstock]]''' is a bird and Snoopy's friend. He entirely communicates through peeps, which leaves it up to readers to guess what he says.{{sfn|Inge|2010|p=171}} Schulz said that Woodstock is aware that he is small and inconsequential, a role that serves as lighthearted existential commentary on coping with the much larger world.{{sfn|Inge|2010|p=176}}
* '''[[Snoopy#Siblings|Spike]]''' is Snoopy's brother who lives alone in the California desert.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://schulzmuseum.org/timeline/2030/ |title= 1929 |website= Charles M. Schulz Museum | access-date= 18 February 2021}}</ref>

Several early characters faded out of prominence during the strip's run. For example [[Shermy]], [[Patty (Peanuts)|Patty]] and [[Violet (Peanuts)|Violet]] were core characters during the initial years of the strip.{{sfn|Inge|2000|pp=69–70}}{{sfn|Inge|2010|p=7}}{{sfn|Goodwillie|2021}} By 1956, Patty and Violet's roles were described only as an extension to Lucy's, and Shermy, who was initially Charlie Brown's closest friend, was then described merely as "an extra little boy".{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=7}} In 1954, Schulz attempted to introduce Charlotte Braun, who was essentially a female version of Charlie Brown but with an excessively loud voice; poor reaction to her humorless personality led to Schulz "[[kill off|killing her off]]" in a tongue-in-cheek letter to a fan in 1955.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=September 4, 2000 |title=A Cartoon Death on Your Conscience |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95903&page=1 |access-date=2022-12-25 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref> Similarly [[Frieda (Peanuts)|Frieda]], a girl with "naturally curly hair", was introduced in 1962, but was already being phased out by the late 1960s after her comic value had seemed to have rapidly run its course; and after 1975, she made only background appearances.{{sfn|Inge|2000|p=171}} Conversely, [[Rerun van Pelt|Rerun]], the youngest brother of Linus and Lucy, had only limited visibility after his introduction in 1973, but became a foreground character by the middle of the 1990s.{{sfn|Farago|2017|p=241}}