Editing Peanuts (section)

===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}}