Inspiration for the characters
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“I think anybody who is writing finds he puts a little bit of himself in all of the characters, at least in this kind of a strip. It’s the only way that you can survive when you have to do something every day. You have to put yourself, all of your thoughts, all of your observations and everything you know into the strip.”
Charles M. Schulz
Charlie Brown and his experiences in the Peanuts comics were inspired by Charles Schulz’s own experiences.
The different problems and themes that the characters deal with are built out of Schulz’s life and experience. Charlie Brown is an anxious character, often full of self-deprecation and doubt. These personality traits are modeled of off Schulz as well. Schulz was a shy, anxious man, and is quoted as saying “If you read the strip, you would know me. Everything I am goes into the strip—all of my fears, my anxieties, and my joys.”
Charlie Brown’s interest in the Little Red-Haired Girl is also based upon Schulz’s own heartbreak. Their relationship is loosely modeled on Schulz’s own relationship with a woman named Donna Johnson, who was his first love. Schulz proposed to and was rejected by her, and created the frustrated and unrequited love of Charlie Brown out of this experience.
Schulz’s own dog, Spike, inspired the character of Snoopy. Spike was a black and white dog that was, according to Schulz, a little bit crazy. Charlie Brown had a father who worked as a barber. This also was based upon Charles Schulz’s father, who was also a barber.
Many of the other Peanuts characters are modeled off of Schulz’s real life friends. Both Linus and Shermy are named after people Schulz knew in his own life. (His friends were named Linus Maurer and Sherman Plepler.)
Schulz was known to have subtly introduced characters that dealt with political and social issues of the time. In 1968, the character of Franklin was introduced. Franklin was the first African-Americ
an character in the Peanuts comic strip. This was significant because racial tension in the 1960’s was very high. Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader and activist, was assassinated in 1968. This prompted Schulz to add Franklin to the cast of characters in an attempt to demonstrate racial equality in the comic strip.
Life in the 1950’s and 60’s
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Charles Schulz began writing the Peanuts comic strip in the 1950’s. Although the Peanuts comics spanned generations, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts characters are children who live and go to school in a world much different than the one we live in today.
So, how has life changed?
Up until the late 1970’s mobile phones only existed in cars. People made phone calls from house phones and pay phones. There was no such thing as texting yet, and the Internet didn’t exist until the late 1980’s. There was no Netflix, Instagram, or Facebook. For fun, people played games, watched television, read, drew, and did everything without the help of Google or Wikipedia.
Cars looked like this: Fashion looked like this:
Music was listened to on a vinyl record played on a record player. Bands like The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and the Beach Boys were popular. The 1950’s and 60’s were also time of protest. Activists protested the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement fought against the unfair treatment of black Americans, and women demanded more rights in the United States.
Look at the pictures above. How have cars changed? How has fashion changed? Overall, how different is your life from kid who grew up during the 1950’s and 60’s?
How have families changed?
In the 1950’s and 60’s, the “perfect,” middle class family was seen as a mother, father, and
children. The father was expected to go to work and make money, while the mother was expected to stay at home and take care of the house and children. The family usually sat down to eat every night and dinner, and then watched television together afterward. The children attended school, but many started working earlier than we do today. They also had less of a chance to go to college.
Is your family like the typical 1950’s and 60’s family? How have families changed since this time?
How has school changed?
Children started attending school at age 5. There were few to no preschools at this time, so children started school in Kindergarten. Some schools were segregated, meaning black and white students attended different schools or sat in different classrooms. This racial segregation was challenged with the civil rights movement. Teachers would use filmstrip projectors to project images on a screen for the class to view. Everything was done by hand, including grading and all assignments turned in by students. There was often a dress code, requiring girls to wear dresses or skirts while boys had to wear slacks and collared shirts. In many schools, teachers were allowed to discipline their students by “paddling” them, or spanking them with a wooden paddle. This practice is now outlawed in public schools across the country.
Think about how much we rely on technology in school today. Can you imagine how different it was for students and teachers during the 1950’s and 60’s?
Works Cited:
Heintjes, Tom. “Crossing the Color Line (in Black and White): Franklin in ‘Peanuts’”. Cartoonician.com. July 2013. Web. 27 April 2015.
Michaelis, David. Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. Print.
“The 1950’s.” History.com. A+E Networks, 2010. Web. 27 April 2015.
Created by: Kellie Ferguson
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