O significado por trás do personagem Woodstock em Peanuts

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O significado por trás do personagem Woodstock em
“Peanuts”
Charles Schulz, criador da história em quadrinhos Peanuts“Peanuts”, era tudo menos um hippie.
Ainda assim, ele nomeou o amado personagem de pássaro amarelo em “Peanuts” Woodstock após o
famoso festival de música de contracultura que foi frequentado e celebrado pela geração mais jovem
que cresceu nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, incluindo muitos que se viam como hippies.
A questão é por que, diz Michelle Ann Abate, autora do novo livro Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet
Babboos: New Perspectives on Charles M. Os amendoins de Schulz.
Com base em sua análise crítica das tiras com Woodstock, Abate disse que acredita que o personagem
pode ser visto para representar os jovens da época de uma forma positiva e afirmativa.
A maneira como Woodstock foi retratado sugere que Schulz não compartilhava os sentimentos de
muitos outros de sua geração, que muitas vezes criticavam e às vezes insultaram a geração Woodstock,
disse Abate, que é professor de literatura para crianças e jovens adultos da Faculdade de Educação e
Ecologia Humana da Universidade Estadual de Ohio.
“Charles Schulz viu os jovens da época sob uma luz diferente de muitas outras pessoas de sua
geração”, disse ela.
“Eu acredito que você pode ver o personagem Woodstock como sua crítica de como os jovens foram
julgados por adultos da época.”
Although the little yellow bird had appeared in “Peanuts” since the 1960s, Woodstock was first given the
name in a June 22, 1970, strip. While Schulz acknowledged that he named his character after the music
festival, he was cryptic about his reasoning behind the name, Abate said.
But Abate believes there is little doubt that he was meant to represent the young adults of the time. In
fact, Snoopy even called Woodstock “a bird hippie” in several strips, she noted.
And it was telling how Schulz depicted this “bird hippie.”
“Of all the characters in ‘Peanuts,’ Woodstock is arguably the kindest, sweetest and most unassuming,”
Abate writes in the book.
The character Woodstock is not portrayed in the way many adults viewed the young people who attended
the music festival.
“The little bird is presented as innocently childlike, not immaturely childish,” Abate wrote. “Both in his
relationship with Snoopy and his interactions with other characters, Woodstock is good, kind, gentle,
sweet and caring.”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Peanuts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock_(Peanuts)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock
https://ehe.osu.edu/directory?id=abate.30
https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/B/Blockheads-Beagles-and-Sweet-Babboos
https://ehe.osu.edu/
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Another clue that Woodstock may represent the younger generation of the time was how he
communicated in the strip. His speech was shown as “chicken scratch” in the strip, and the only
character who could understand him was Snoopy.
Abate noted that older generations often complain that they can’t understand younger people and talk
about how they “speak a different language.” That’s literally true of Woodstock in “Peanuts.” It’s telling
that Snoopy was the one who could understand him, given that he calls himself “groovy” in the strip, she
said.
“Snoopy is a very sympathetic character in ‘Peanuts’ and is able to blur the lines between animals and
humans, between different generations and different mindsets,” she said.
The connection between Snoopy and Woodstock was apparent even before Woodstock was given the
name.
In 1964, Schulz published a sequence of strips where the little yellow bird and his feathered friends
engaged in a series of demonstrations. What the birds are protesting is not made known – their signs
simply show punctuation marks or symbols. But after two full weeks of weekday strips, Snoopy declares
that he always supports the “underbird.”
Schulz had a soft spot for the underdogs and their struggles, including young people, Abate said.
When “Peanuts” first started in 1950, it was about the struggle of young people growing up during that
time, which was very different from the issues faced by those growing up in the 1960s and ’70s.
Abate said Charlie Brown and his peers might be called the “dour children,” while the Woodstock
Generation were often called “flower children.”
“In the ’50s, Schulz was presenting kids as being depressed, being anxious, being philosophical, being
anything but carefree and innocent,” Abate said.
“Initially, it was radical to suggest that young people weren’t all cute and innocent. And then by the ’70s it
became radical to say they were.”
But in both cases, “Peanuts” challenges mainstream beliefs about youth and youth culture, she said. 
Woodstock played a big role in that after he was introduced.
“In the same way that the hippie movement was short-lived but enjoyed a long legacy, Schulz’s bird was
physically small but had a big thematic impact … He changed one of the core messages in ‘Peanuts’,”
Abate wrote.
Abate doesn’t offer a new view of just Woodstock in Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos. She
devotes chapters to other major and minor characters, including Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy,
reconsidering them in new lights.
Even though the last original “Peanuts” strip was published in 2000, the impact of the work has lived on.
“Peanuts”-related shows continue to air on television and fans still buy a wide variety of “Peanuts”
merchandise.
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“‘Peanuts’ has really kept a foothold in popular culture, even 20 years or so after Schulz’s death,” Abate
said.
“And more than that, it still is relevant. It is hard to imagine there is a cartoonist working today who has
not been influenced in some way by Schulz and his work.”