Linus van Pelt

Linus van Pelt is a major character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. He is Lucy and Rerun's brother. Linus always means well and tries to smooth over any storms that arise amongst the gang. A source of frustration for him is Lucy, who always belittles him, particularly over his security blanket. In spite of his insightful nature, he has a naive belief in the Great Pumpkin. He is Charlie Brown's best friend.

Appearance
Linus is usually depicted wearing short black pants and a shirt with black stripes. In the Peanuts animated TV specials, Linus' shirt is colored red.

Personality
Linus was eccentric from the start. As a baby and a toddler, he had a fascination with building impressive structures, mostly with blocks and playing cards. He would instantly learn skills; when Charlie Brown handed him a basketball, Linus bounced it at lightning speeds before shooting and scoring in the trash can. The only thing he couldn't do was blow balloons correctly, they would always end up being cuboid instead of rounded for no conceivable reason. He was more intolerant of his sister's torments than he later would be, and would throw something at her or pretend to shoot her while screaming "BANG!". His appearances and his sentences were small, but both would increase as he started leaving the house more, often being told incorrect facts about the world by Lucy, which he would believe and get scared of.

Linus' age would quickly accelerate, stopping upon being just slightly younger than the rest of the characters. Despite his youth, Linus is incredibly smart, acting as a philosopher and theologian, often quoting the Bible. He is kindhearted and caring, and he listens to the problems of others by the wall or elsewhere and, if not a joke, he would have something helpful to say or do.

In contrast to his advanced intellect, Linus has two of the strangest traits out of the entire cast, ones that make the fact that he sucks his thumbs and thinks that one is sweeter than the other look like nothing unusual. The first is his belief in The Great Pumpkin, which started on October 26, 1959. Apparently started by the confusion of Santa Claus and the commercialization of Christmas poisoning children's minds, he solely believed that the Great Pumpkin would rise from the pumpkin patch he finds is most "sincere", before flying around the world to bring toys to all the good children. This delusion causes Linus to sit in a local pumpkin patch and wait for him to rise out of it. He was able to gain, in Marcie's words, a "disciple" occasionally, such as Peppermint Patty and Sally, but something would always ruin it for Linus, and he obviously never got to see the non-existent entity.

The second, and most famous and downright signature trait, is his security blanket. Ever since its introduction on June 1, 1954, he has carried it with him over his shoulder in most of his appearances even when others make fun of him for it. Without it, Linus is inexplicable paranoid, and ends up fainting, shaking, sweating, and showing other traits of intense sickness and worry. Lucy makes numerous attempts to break Linus of his blanket habit, and Snoopy tries to steal the blanket for himself, but Linus would never let up. The blanket makes for a peculiar multi-tool for Linus, as he can use it as a whip, a parachute and as a means to grab long range objects. Linus is extremely accurate when using his blanket as a whip, being able to hit a falling nickel in the air without warning. In later strips, Linus was seen less and less with his blanket. Charles Schulz said in 1989 that Linus had outgrown his blanket and it only appeared in strips that were dependent on it.

Linus became a valued member of Charlie Brown's baseball team. He is usually seen playing second base, however he has on occasion played as Pitcher in place of Charlie Brown when he has been unwell, Usually when Linus is pitcher, the team wins the game.