Peppermint Patty
Peanuts has always been my favorite comic strip. Charles M. Schulz's world is a dense and wonderful one. I look forward to writing a nice, long essay on it someday soon, but for now, I just want to focus on one character.
Although it doesn’t matter to me either way, let me just say first that Peppermint Patty is not portrayed in the strip as gay. In fact, she falls in love with a few different male characters. That is not to say that she might also be in love with Marcie, but that isn't hinted at. Straight or not, she is a strange and interesting personality, worthy of whatever you see in her and whatever she represents to you.
Peanuts is the only strip that I have ever read that regularly breaks my heart. I know these characters so well and they are so ingrained in my consciousness, that I feel for them. Schulz once said that if a character is well defined, they are easy to write for - they provide their own story ideas. I like the consistent behavior they display year after year. They may grow as a person but any changes are rooted in their personality. We are with them through their ups and downs and we learn how their minds work and what their hearts want. None of them pulls at my emotions like Peppermint Patty.
Patty is raised by a single father who travels a lot for his career. She holds him in very high regard and he, in turn, calls her his "rare gem". We get the distinct impression that her mother has died. She also lives in a different neighborhood than the rest of the Peanuts gang, making her situation seem even lonelier. (Jesus, I feel like crying my eyes out right now.) She's not alone, however, Franklin and Marcie live in the same area and are loyal friends.
Marcie is Peppermint Patty's school-smart but otherwise clueless best friend. Each of them have a parental relationship to the other. Marcie is the conscience and the buffer between Patty and the outside world, often smoothing out the friction caused by Patty's "brusque" nature. Patty, in turn, takes it upon herself to teach Marcie about the more practical aspects of real life - playing football, boiling eggs, and standing up for oneself. They really seem to need each other to help make it through each day.
Some of the funniest strips involve Peppermint Patty's troubles at school. She is not a good student and routinely receives a D- for her efforts. The reason for the bad grades doesn't seem to be a lack of intelligence, but a lack of patience. She also has trouble staying awake in class. It is shown in later strips that she has trouble sleeping when her father is away and will stay up until he gets home. Sometimes she even borrows Snoopy to act as a watchdog to help her feel safer at night. In one tragic strip, she turns in an assignment but forgets to put her name on it. The teacher, not knowing whose paper it is, ends up giving it a good grade.
A running, decades-long story involves Patty's ongoing crush on Charlie Brown. He acts as if he doesn't notice her hints and advances, but in truth, he's just not interested. Much to her dismay, he loves "the little red-haired girl" who embodies everything that she is not - polite, fashionable, and pretty. She is a tomboy, complete with a rough voice and a habit for saying whatever she wants to say and hearing whatever she chooses to hear.
Peppermint Patty's appearance is another signifier of her home life. She wears the mismatched outfit of a child who must choose her own clothes and style her own hair. She is also rarely without her sandals regardless of the weather - a gift from her father. (keep it together, Jeffrey) What chance does she have against that "little red-haired girl"? Occasionally she will get an opportunity to be feminine and seems to relish it no matter how short-lived it might be. For example, she is a promising ice skater and gets to wear white skates and a dress in a series of strips with Snoopy as her demanding coach.
There is always a conflict, not just with Patty, but inside of all of the characters in Schulz's world, of wanting to be yourself and letting your freak flag fly, but also wanting to fit in and feel valued. The love and comfort Peppermint Patty needs from her home life are not always there, so she searches for it elsewhere. Sometimes she finds it and sometimes she has to invite herself over to a friend's for Thanksgiving, trick someone into holding her hand, or wait up late at night for someone to come home so she can finally feel secure enough to turn out the light and go to sleep.
