SNOOPY

 

Snoopy, whose fictional birthday has been established as October 2, made his first appearance in the strip of 4 October 1950, two days after the thumbnail strip. It 'was first identified by name on November 10. Schulz was originally going to call him "Sniffy" (as described in the 25 th anniversary book), until he discovered that the name was used in a different comic strip. This was changed to "Snoopy" after remembering that his late mother Dena Schulz had commented that if their family were ever to acquire a third dog, should be called Snoopy, a term of endearment in Norwegian (the actual term is "Snuppa" ).

In earlier strips it is not clear who Snoopy belongs, for example, in February 2, 1951 strip, Charlie Brown accuses Snoopy of following him, only to be told by Patty that Snoopy is not following Charlie Brown but lives only in the same direction strips. Indeed many early show Snoopy interacting with Shermy (which is shown in a first strip of Snoopy running with the lead) and Patty without Charlie Brown, Snoopy doing seem to belong to all the neighborhood kids, similar to the dog Pete in the Our Gang comedies, which is the dog of all. (Note: In this era, it was common for dogs to roam their territory and meet with local children, and then return to their respective homes). Later, Charlie Brown says that his parents bought Snoopy for him to Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, after another guy had dumped sand on him while playing in a sandbox.

Snoopy was a silent character for the first two years of its existence, but May 27, 1952 verbalized his thoughts to readers for the first time in a thought balloon, Schulz would use this device for nearly all the appearances of the character in the strip thereafter . At first, Snoopy has acted like a normal dog, and only think of simple sentences in a single word (like "FOOD!"), But then became more articulate.

Snoopy and the ability to "speak" his thoughts to the reader, many of the human characters in Peanuts have the uncanny ability to read his thoughts and respond to them. In the animated television specials and Peanuts, Snoopy's thoughts are not verbalized, his moods are instead conveyed through growls, sobs, laughter, monosyllabic phrases like "yuck", "hey", etc., as well as through pantomime. The only exceptions are in the animated adaptations of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Snoopy! The Musical, in which Snoopy's thoughts are verbalized through voiceovers (by Robert Towers and Cam Clarke, respectively). Animation producer Bill Meléndez expressed both Snoopy and (eventually) Woodstock in numerous television specials 1965-2006. In Motion Comics Peanuts, Snoopy's thoughts appear on the screen as text bubbles of thought, without voice.

Strangely, the first time a beagle was mentioned in the strip (December 5, 1960), Snoopy denied being one. As Snoopy dozed, Charlie Brown paraphrased Gertrude Stein: "Beagles on the grass, alas." To this, Snoopy replied, "I'm not a stupid beagle!" (Years later, Snoopy would paraphrase the Stein expression himself. "Pigeons on the grass, alas, dogs on the ground, abound" (June 25, 1982)

As the series progressed, Snoopy has become a more human-like dog. His character is that of a dog who pretends to be a person (or sometimes forgets he is a dog). In a strip Peanuts, Sally had to do a report on animals for school, and asked the help of Snoopy. But Snoopy was reluctant. "How can I help you?" he thought. "I do not know the animals."

Many memorable moments from the Peanuts' Snoopy arrived in efforts as a novelist: his eternal opener on the typewriter "It was a dark and stormy night ..." is taken from Edward George Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel Paul Clifford. Almost all his remarks are rejected by potential publishers, who eventually resort to rude dismissals and cruel jokes to avoid being groped bothered by Snoopy. The contrast between Snoopy's existence in a dream world and Charlie Brown in the real world is central to the humor and philosophy of Peanuts (eg Peanuts book title Life is a dream, Charlie Brown). "It was a dark and stormy night" remains his most successful works.

Schulz summed up Snoopy character in an interview in 1997: ". Must retreat into his fantasy world to survive Otherwise, he leads a kind of boring, miserable life I do not envy dogs the lives they must live.