Word: linus
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Downs. Like the adults they really are, the children of Peanuts are beset by an assortment of griefs and fears. Charlie Brown's little sister Sally is afraid of kindergarten. Linus, refusing to memorize his piece for the Christmas pageant, knuckles under when faced with the imminent threat of his sister's cocked fist. The ungovernable loudmouth Lucy gets depressed by the thought that the world has downs as well as ups. "I don't want any downs,' " she bellows. "I just want 'ups' and 'ups' and 'ups.' " Even Snoopy...
...Charlie Brown's "good grief!" an exclamation of fundamental Angst? Does Linus' blanket have a deep symbolic meaning? Such questions may sound like ways to take the fun out of Charles Schulz's famous comic strip Peanuts. But Robert L. Short, 32, a graduate student at the University of Chicago Divinity School, argues not only amusingly but also convincingly that Peanuts indeed has intentional theological significance...
...whose creator is a lay preacher in the Church of God of Anderson, Ind., is a modern variety of prophetic literature, full of useful parables for the times. For example, "the doctrine of original sin is a theme constantly being dramatized in Peanuts." When Charlie Brown gloomily confides to Linus that he has "been confused right from the day I was born," he sums up the "nameless woe" that is at the heart of man's predicament...
...woman of tomorrow"; "good ol' wishy-washy" Charlie Brown will be forever friendless, always the losing pitcher in 184-to-O baseball games. Trapped by what Cardinal Newman called "some terrible aboriginal calamity," Schulz's characters never seem able to keep up with the world. As Linus puts it: "How can you do 'new math' problems with an 'old math' mind...
...according to St. Paul, is worshiping any god but God. In Schulz's "child's garden of reverses," says Short, false idols are plentiful, and the wages of sin are paid in terms of an "emotional clobbering." Thus Linus' beloved blanket-"only one yard of outing flannel stands between me and a nervous breakdown" -is constantly threatened by the dog Snoopy or the visiting grandmother who disapproves of such habits (and drinks 32 cups of coffee a day). Lucy's love for Schroeder goes unrequited; the heart of the little blond pianist belongs only to Beethoven...