I always wondered why Charlie Brown got rocks when he went trick or treating. I can see the humor in it happening once, but when EVERY house has a rock standing by to toss into his bag, it's a bit much. Plus, his bag, which (if memory serves me) was just a paper sack, wouldn't it get heavy after a while? Or wouldn't the bottom just fall out of it?
Poor Charlie Brown, he just couldn't get a break.
I guess but something about his costume or how did everybody start throwing rocks at him
shareCharlie Brown's shtick has always been being the picked on or passed over underdog. You see it earlier when he got an invitation to the party and Lucy then tells him he got invited by accident. BTW: Creator Charles Schultz said Charlie Brown was based on himself.
shareThe town is built on loosely packed alluvium, with plenty of small rocks.
sharePlus, his bag, which (if memory serves me) was just a paper sack, wouldn't it get heavy after a while? Or wouldn't the bottom just fall out of it?
This is happening in the suburbs, where people have their own big back yards and thus own a 'piece of nature', therefore rocks are more common to have in their houses as well. They might have kids of their own, and kids are stupid, so they sometimes think even rocks can 'be pretty' or 'have value', before they are taught to obsess about money and capitalistic greed is installed into them by the time they reach their awkward teenage years.
Also, this was made such a long time ago, when people were 'closer to nature' than these days, when people worship demons (some poster here identifies with the lord of the flies, just to remind anyone that finds this part puzzling) and plastic rectangles more than I care to know.
Rocks are pretty cheap, you can often just find them lying around; people don't generally value them much. This means they're plentiful, free and easy to find and acquire. It shouldn't be such a mystery.
Charlie Brown is basically BULLIED BY LIFE, depressed and unlucky, plus he's a bumbling fool, and pretty stupid sometimes. This leads to 'everything bad always happening to him'. Of course his world is a cartoon world based on a comic world, so these things are exaggerated for humorous effect (though it just depresses me, as in many ways, I identify too much with him - he once said he doesn't fit anywhere, and someone suggests to him to start his own club of 'misfits', but then he realizes he probably wouldn't even fit in there).
Of course it IS a bit weird that everyone just picks on him without even knowing him, or knowing it's him under that sheet - adults are supposed to be more mature than that, or at least there should be ONE adult that's more mature than that.. also, WHO gives a rock to ANY kid, no matter how obnoxious, in that situation? I have actually been to USA during Halloween and taken part of this ridiculous ritual, and damn were the brats obnoxious, and we were expected to praise their plastic, store-bought 'costumes'.. an ordeal.
There's one thing I hate about these cartoons, by the way - look at Charlie Brown's sheet. It's like Charlie is COMPLETELY inept and unable to do the simplest thing. It didn't use to be like this. Originally, the sheet with too many eye holes all over the place was Linus's cheet, not Charlie Brown's! The excuse was that Linus was too young to know how to handle scissors correctly yet.
It sort of fits Charlie Brown's character, I suppose, but he IS shown to be way more competent in the comics, at least in the early years, the comic Charlie would never be quite THAT clumsy, at least in the earlier years.
They made other changes like that as well, it's like they dumped EVERYTHING on to Charlie, that was originally spread out to the other characters. It's like they collected every joke that they could make Charlie look bad, and just dumped it all on the poor kid.
This is why these cartoons don't sit so well with me, even though I do like them and appreciate the effort that went into them, and would even consider them 'classics'. That darn Guaraldi jazz is just too delicious and atmospheric, too.
I have more rocks than that in my back yard.
shareBTW, it's possible those were some precious, valuable rocks, or candy that's supposed to look like rocks.. I mean, some people do collect rocks.
OK, I admit that's flimsy.. Charlie just has bad luck because life loves bullying him. On the other hand, who knows what atrocities and crimes against humanity he committed in a previous life, he might have been even a... feminist! This means, karmically speaking, he deserves EVERYTHING that's coming to him.