Peanuts fans around the world have been treated to a wonderful renaissance this winter.
The legendary comic strip, which ended its 50-year run in February 2000, has come alive on the silver screen. “The Peanuts Movie” has grossed more than $145 million worldwide, was nominated for a Golden Globe for best animated feature film and will surely be an Oscar contender.
Alas, the Peanuts revival has also helped revive some feelings about the strip which are, well, a bit nuts. In particular, the popular character Snoopy is still perceived by some people as — get this — a classic example of a narcissist.
This sentiment goes back many decades. As illustrator and cartoonist Sarah Boxer recently wrote in The Atlantic, “Snoopy was still hilarious” in the late 1960s, “but something fundamental had shifted. He didn’t need any of the other characters in order to be what he was. He needed only his imagination.”
This led to the creation of a “new Snoopy-centric world,” new characters centered on the dog’s life and a perceived change in the strip’s tone, style and humor.
“There was something fundamentally rotten about the new Snoopy,” wrote Boxer, “whose charm was based on his total lack of concern about what others thought of him. His confidence, his breezy sense that the world may be falling apart but one can still dance on, was worse than irritating. It was morally bankrupt.”
Boxer, to her credit, is a huge Snoopy fan who disagrees with this criticism. Sadly, many others may have wanted to become the Red Baron and battle one of Snoopy’s alter egos, the World War I flying ace — for real.
Christopher Caldwell, for example, wrote this about the complex beagle in the Jan. 4, 2000, edition of the New York Press:
“Snoopy was never a full participant in the tangle of relationships that drove ‘Peanuts’ in its Golden Age. He couldn’t be: he doesn’t talk (all his words appear in ‘thought bubbles’), and therefore he doesn’t interact. He’s there to be looked at.”
Meanwhile, Daniel Mendelsohn made this stark assessment in the New York Times Book Review on Oct. 15, 2006:
“Snoopy’s self-proclaimed virtuosity does, in the end, alienate and diminish: he’s amusing, with his epic grudge against the Red Baron (and the Van Gogh and the spiral staircase he lost when his doghouse burned down), precisely because he represents the part of ourselves — the smugness, the avidity, the pomposity, the rank egotism — most of us know we have but try to keep decently hidden away.”
Besides the fact that Snoopy isn’t real, and some people clearly have way too much time on their hands, to associate this great character with narcissistic behavior is wrongheaded.
Yes, Snoopy can be detached from reality (so to speak). He’s been the undefeated Masked Marvel, impressed the kids as Joe Cool, served a historical role as the Revolutionary War Patriot and the master of his own domain as the World Famous Attorney, Writer, Tennis Player, Surgeon and so on.
But even with his selfish traits, he has always been a true, selfless friend to other Peanuts characters.
Consider:
- His loyalty to his owner, Charlie Brown, has never been in doubt.
- He’s the star player of the terrible neighborhood baseball team, and would never abandon them.
- He has a strong bond with Woodstock, his “friend of friends.” And when Linus, Lucy, Schroeder and others are in trouble, they can count on help from Snoopy.
Here’s something else that the anti-Snoopy contingent appears to have conveniently ignored:
The majority of the Peanuts gang is between 6 and 8 years old, give or take. In other words, these are young children, and not adults.
Hence, their ego-driven personal needs and desires always take precedence over working with and/or helping others.
Snoopy, who is also quite young, perfectly fits within these categories. Couldn’t this mean his so-called narcissism isn’t a personality trait at all, but rather a developmental stage that he — and the other characters — could eventually outgrow? Just a thought.
Good grief! Let’s give it a rest, folks. Snoopy should be admired for being the selfish, imperfect, creative, imaginative and lovable Peanuts character he is — and has always been.
Michael Taube, a columnist and political commentator, was a speechwriter for former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.