In this Halloween season I got to thinking about “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”
The Peanuts TV Christmas Special has a strong moral: It’s not the commercialism that makes Christmas…
What is the moral of the Halloween Special: Don’t fall for false Gods?, Hard to believe that coming from Linus, who will be giving us the true meaning of Christmas in less than 2 months.
Surely you know it is about Linus and his deep moral fortitude…You’ve seen how he and Lucy get along, you could write novels on their relationship alone. It’s about Love plain and simple. This particular love is of a perfect gourd but nontheless it’s about Love in my humble opinion.
Stick to your beliefs, even if there isn’t a shred of evidence you’re right? That’s actually a very popular lesson in today’s world. 
Moral: Halloween candy is sometimes tainted with rye ergot.
In the strips, Linus is a great know-it-all, so giving him this preposterous belief is giving him an Achilles heel. Even the security blanket isn’t as much a fault since he can wield it as a weapon. It’s like Lucy mooning hopelessly over Schroeder. She’s all powerful in every other way but this one.
That isn’t a moral, true, but there’s no real moral reason why Linus has this belief. It’s just a humanizer.
Believe in og (in pumpkin form) = you don’t get any candy.
The antithesis being:
Belive in og (in bunny form) = you get lot’s of candy.
It’s just business as usual; adults screwing with kids’ heads.
On one level, The Great Pumpkin serves as a direct stand-in for Santa Claus. Schulz is poking fun at this very strange mythical figure by offering a parallel version with no preexisting cultural baggage. We can smile at Linus for having such strong faith in a patently nonsensical being, yet our culture actively encourages kids to believe in a character who is exactly as weird. This is sort of a counterpoint to A Charlie Brown Christmas, which lamented the overcommercialization of the holiday; It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown questions whether it’s a good thing for kids to view Christmas solely as a Santa vigil at the expense of the spiritual (and likely community) elements.
However, Schulz also uses Linus’ belief in the Great Pumpkin to examine the phenomenon of the True Believer. It’s not just about avoiding false gods; it’s about examining your beliefs and motivations critically, which Linus never does. Linus also illustrates some of the potential pitfalls of evangelism when he manages to persuade Sally to join him on his vigil. He feels vindicated by her presence, but she’s really only there for the Halloween goodies he’s told her about, and is betrayed when the promised miracle does not occur.
Linus is the most intellectual of the Peanuts gang, but he occasionally latches onto some strange beliefs. Most of these odd notions are anxiety-related-- at one point he professed a fear of “gully cats,” which he explained as being a type of wild cat that avoids mountains because that’s where the mountain lions live. I think the Great Pumpkin is Schulz’s way of commenting on religious faith that presumes to know the mind of God. Linus has convinced himself that the Great Pumpkin will appear if he only believes hard enough, so he has set himself up for a crisis of faith every time that doesn’t happen.
So for Linus its:
Christmas: Jesus -scripture & faith
Halloween: Great Pumpkin -faith
Easter: Easter Beagle -visible evidence
An we think Charlie Brown is the warped one?
Learn to wield those scissors properly if you want to make a ghost costume.
The moral is, it’s really hard to get pumpkin patches to be sincere. They are naturally dupliciitous. Duh.
What Terrifel said.
Well put, Terrifel.
(other morals: PTSD can be debilitating.)
Charlie Brown believes in things that aren’t great philosophical questions:
– He believes he will kick that football.
– He believes he can fly a kite without it being eaten by the Kite-Eating Tree
– He believes he might have a chance with the little red-haired girl.
Each has an unwavering faith, just in different things. Linus is the most intellectual of the gang (I agree with Terrifel), and if his beliefs are a little above the rest of the gang, then so be it. But they all have beliefs of some sort, and if no belief will ever come true, then it seems to me that it doesn’t matter whether it’s the Great Pumpkin or kicking a football. It’s a belief that rightly or wrongly, keeps them going.
“…do you see that large group of clouds up there? I see the stoning of Stephen. Over to the side, I can see the figure of the apostle Paul standing. What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?”
“I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsey, but I changed my mind.”
Linus’ intellectualism can occasionally intimidate his friends, but except for the Great Pumpkin, he doesn’t seem to interfere with their beliefs.
Salon just did a review of “Schulz and Peanuts,” a biography of Charles Schultz by David Michaelis. According to the review, Michaelis presents a strong correlation between Schultz’ personal life and events in Peanuts. The Great Pumpkin was apparently introduced when Schultz became disillusioned by organized religion. Also, Lucy is supposedly based on his first wife, Joyce, but the van Pelts were named for the Schultz neighbors in the early years of their marriage.
I can’t decide if I want to read the bio or just let it be. Here’s a link to the review, although you might need to watch an ad if you’re not a Salon member.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t link to this clip about the Great Pumpkin. 
Excellent post, Terrifel. On the other hand, while some of Linus’ odd ideas are anxiety related, others are simply odd.
I don’t recall the “gully cats,” but I’ve always had a fondness for the series of strips where Linus declares that he’s going to be a fanatic when he grows up. And then clarifies it by specifying that he’ll be a wide-eyed fanatic. (Alas, the only strip I could find online from that storyline is this one.)
I got a rock.
Maybe that if you devote too much time and thought to spiritualism, you’ll just end up alone in the dark in a cold field (hint, hint), waiting for deliverance that will never come; wheras if you merely pay heed to the superficial elements of your “faith,” you’ll get some fulfillment out of the deal—and the “candy” reward created through human effort, the only true happyness mortal man can ever hope to acheive.
Or, ol’ Sparky just thought it’d be funny of Linus got Christmas and Halloween mixed up.
Or he was a closet horror fan, and Linus was having a Renfield/Wilbur Whateley moment.
Happy Halloween, ev’rybody! [sub]Looo-looo-loo, loo-looo-looo-loooo-loooo…[/sub]
Doesn’t he miss out on all the trick or treating because he spends the night sitting in a pumpkin patch? Maybe the moral is if you spend your entire life focused on a single fantasy that will supposedly make it perfect, you’ll miss out on a lot of good stuff and end up with jack shit?
Once at a science-fiction convention art show, I saw a painting called, “It’s the Great Old Ones, Charlie Brown!” Linus, wearing an evil grin and a black t-shirt bearing an inverted cross, is kneeling in a pentagram conjuring up Cthulhu, who has just torn off Lucy’s and Charlie Brown’s heads as the rest of the gang run in terror.
Wish I could find it online.
