I really started thinking about this today cuz I feel pretty much like him. Remember how he would get on the pitchers mound and pitch the ball and then see a line drive scream by him and knock him off the mound after that? That's what I feel like too. I keep trying and trying and can never win or find any kind of success. Even now when people talk to me they tell me how I sound depressed. Well what else am I suppose to sound like when my day just drags on day after day and I'm stuck in a no win situation?

When you find the answer, I hope you'll share it with me.

Good grief.

no eeyore was

Can anyone blame Charlie Brown for being depressed? Take a look at who he hung around with! :)
Charlie Brown: the main character
Snoopy: Charlie Brown's dog
Linus van Pelt: Charlie Brown's Blanket-Sporting best friend
Lucy van Pelt: Linus' fuss-budget of an older sister
Schroeder: the piano-player
Woodstock: Snoopy's best friend
Sally Brown: Charlie Brown's younger sister
Marcie: the bespectacled character
Peppermint Patty: Marcie's best friend
Franklin: the first African-American character
Pig-Pen: the dirtiest character
Frieda: the only player in Charlie Brown's baseball team not to wear a cap. End Quote.

Doug

I actually don't think that Charlie Brown was manic depressive. I think Schultz explored depression themes
through Charlie -- but i think Charlie is a sensitive human who understands the "human condition".
He suffers, fails, feels rejected, but through it all, he perseveres. He goes back on that mound, even
when he sees himself failing.

This makes him more like Sisyphus, who has to push that rock up the hill ... until it falls down.
Then he goes down to push it back up, and this repeats forever.

This is life, but as hard as it gets, you learn from not giving up.

Just how i see it...

I guess cartoons are just cartoons, but there are real people behind them. Yep, as Charlie Brown always said.....Good Grief.

Yeah, Charlie Brown is definitely depressed. I can't watch him because I get too depressed myself. He never makes it. He never gets anything right...

No, his life is just too depressing, he just never even has a mania..

what about ziggy?

True but in cases such as this there's some meaning behind them. I never thought twice about Charlie Brown and his dilemmas when I was a kid. But now after all these years of rejection and failure, I can understand the meaning behind the character and how Charles Schultz came up with him. What's strange is I do some fiction writing too but unlike Schultz never had any success with it.

Its amazing how people express different emotions through different mediums.

Yes, I've seen it expressed through music many times, especially the hardcore stuff and many movies too. But how many times have you seen it expressed like this in what is considered a kids cartoon? I know you don't see Charlie Brown harming himself or expressing thoughts of suicide, but if this cartoon wasn't aimed at it kids he possibly would be doing just that. In fact I even heard of a suicide case around here in neighboring Evanston, IL last week regarding a 10 year old.

That barely seems real that a ten year old would do that but sadly it is reality. So so sad. :(
At least with Charlie Brown not being reality you can laugh at it but if you get way into shows as I do you still can't help feeling a cartoon's pain a bit. Especially when you can relate to the character or know someone just like them. That good ol' Charlie. He defidently perseveres.

How funny that you should post about this. Yesterday I had to take my home-schooled daughter across town for mandatory testing, which required us changing buses twice. On the way home we missed 2 different buses by about a fraction of a minute and I said "Good grief, I'm starting to feel like Charlie Brown!" My daughter didn't get the reference at first but then I reminded her how he always has such rotten luck.

I have felt sorry for Charlie Brown plenty of times, even if I did chuckle a bit.