Artistic Significance: Linus, the Great Pumpkin is a story about keeping faith

As quickly as it came, spooky season is getting ready to leave. Maybe a few decorations will stay up for another week before getting turned into Thanksgiving or Christmas.
But, I am a big supporter of giving holidays their time, so I am still on Halloween for one more week.
In thinking about how to round out the season this year, I realized my mother may low-key disown me if I don’t talk about “Charlie Brown.”
I think the Christmas specials get all the attention, and they’re good, but my favorite is “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”
It was a staple in my house growing up, and I take after my mom, we’re Linus people.
Linus is the embodiment of all the best things about childhood, imagination, creativity and soft, cuddly blankets.
I’m not sure why it didn’t come to me sooner to talk about the messages in this particular piece of culture. I thought I would need to re-watch it and analyze if there’s something to say, but as soon as I thought about it, I realized there’s so many messages in Linus’ arch in “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”
While Charlie and all of his friends go trick or treating, Linus spends the night in a pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin to visit.
His belief is that the Great Pumpkin goes around visiting “the most sincere” pumpkin patches on Halloween.
Everybody laughs at him for believing this will happen, but he doesn’t care what they think. He’s going. This is what Halloween is about for him.
As the night goes on, and he continues to be questioned, Linus insists that the Great Pumpkin will come.
Until the line “If the Great Pumpkin shows up, I’ll put in a good word for you. Good grief, I said if.”
To me, that line is significant for two reasons; even as they make fun of him, Linus wants the best for his friends and a questioning of faith.
Linus has gone to pumpkin patches for years looking for the Great Pumpkin and never seen a sign that he’s right in his faith. All the negativity is starting to get to him.
However, at the end credits, when Charlie Brown calls waiting for the Great Pumpkin stupid, Linus insists that next year will be the year when he finds “the most sincere pumpkin patch there ever was.”
His story, I think, is one that anybody who has a strong faith in something can relate to; being laughed at and questioned for it, starting to doubt your own faith, but ultimately sticking with it.
I’m not a big faith person because believing in something takes a lot of energy. One of the biggest things I’ve ever maintained long-term faith in is exactly what these columns are trying to prove; pieces of fiction have more merit to them than just entertainment.
But, I still get what Linus was going through with the Great Pumpkin because sometimes it feels like there’s a societal pressure to dismiss pieces of fiction, especially those geared toward young students.
As somebody who tries to write fiction, I have to believe there’s more to it than a story for entertainment. I have to believe it means something.
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe Linus is wrong, but we keep insisting.
Shine is a staff writer for the Daily American Republic. He can be reached at mshine.dar@gmail.com.