For decades, Charlie Brown’s love life has revolved around one girl he could never quite bring himself to approach. The Little Red-Haired Girl is practically part of his DNA now, a symbol of the kind of crush that exists mostly in someone’s imagination. Charlie Brown sees her, thinks about her, panics, and usually does absolutely nothing about it.
However, Peanuts gave Charlie Brown something much harder to come by: a girlfriend. Her name was Peggy Jean, and she was introduced to the comic strip in the summer of 1990 — nearly 30 years after Charlie Brown first fell in love with the Little Red-Haired Girl. While the character’s romantic story usually boiled down to long-distance affection, Charlie Brown’s romance with Peggy Jean was sweet and accurate. He talked to her and trusted her; she liked him back, and, most shocking of all, she kissed him.
Charlie Brown Met Peggy Jean at Summer Camp
Peggy Jean first appeared on July 23, 1990, when Charlie Brown encountered her at summer camp. Naturally, being Charlie Brown, he made the situation more complicated than it needed to be.
He was so nervous about introducing himself that he accidentally called himself “Brownie Charles.” Rather than becoming another reason for Charlie Brown to retreat into himself, however, the mistake became a little in-joke between them. Peggy Jean continued calling him Brownie Charles, and eventually Charlie Brown came to like the nickname. He was actually getting to know someone who seemed genuinely interested in him.
Peggy Jean eventually asked Charlie to kick a football while she held it for him. That should have been a routine summer-camp activity. Instead, it became a test of whether Charlie could trust a girl not to pull the ball away at the last second — something Lucy had done to him so many times that the humiliation had practically become a running character trait. Charlie hesitated, terrified that Peggy Jean would betray him the same way Lucy always did. The moment drove a wedge between them, leaving Charlie miserable, but Peggy Jean eventually returned, and the two reconciled. More importantly, she made her feelings unmistakable: Peggy Jean gave Charlie Brown his first kiss.
Charlie Brown Sold His Comic Books for Peggy Jean
The relationship didn’t end when summer camp did, as Charlie Brown and Peggy Jean kept in touch, although even that became a distinctly Charlie Brown problem. Peggy Jean knew him as Brownie Charles, so she addressed her letters accordingly. Sally, apparently unaware that Brownie Charles was actually her brother, repeatedly told the mailman there was no one by that name at their house. Charlie’s letters from Peggy Jean therefore never reached him, leaving him convinced she had simply stopped writing. It’s the kind of misunderstanding that could only happen to Charlie Brown.
The relationship also produced one of the more heartbreaking gestures in his romantic history. Around Christmas, Charlie Brown decided to buy Peggy Jean a pair of gloves. When he discovered they cost $25, he sold his entire comic-book collection to afford them. Unfortunately, though, Peggy Jean’s mother had already bought her the exact same pair. Ultimately, Charlie Brown’s grand romantic gesture had gone about as well as one could expect. At least he had tried.
For once, Charlie Brown’s feelings were reciprocated. She told him she loved him, she kissed him, and she wanted him to write and call. For a brief stretch of Peanuts, Charlie Brown got what he’d spent most of his life convinced he couldn’t have.
Peggy Jean Eventually Became Another Charlie Brown Heartbreak
Eventually, Charlie Brown’s correspondence with Peggy Jean ended when she moved away. He had no way to contact her, and the relationship faded into one of those unresolved memories. Charlie eventually returned to thinking about the Little Red-Haired Girl, but Peggy Jean hadn’t simply been erased from his life. She returned to the strip in 1999, nearly a decade after their original summer-camp romance. The reunion should have been happy; instead, Peggy Jean had moved on. She had another boyfriend, leaving Charlie Brown once again on the wrong side of an unrequited romance.
Charlie Brown spent years loving someone who didn’t know him, finally found someone who loved him back, and then lost her anyway. Peggy Jean represents proof that Charlie Brown’s romantic life wasn’t entirely hopeless. His relationship with her also fits one of Charles Schulz’s most enduring ideas about childhood. Peanuts could be funny, absurd, and even sentimental, but it rarely promised lasting happiness. Charlie Brown’s good moments were often temporary; sometimes you got the girl, sometimes she kissed you, sometimes you sold your comic books to buy her Christmas gloves, and sometimes, after all that, she got another boyfriend.
For Charlie Brown, apparently, even getting the girl was only a temporary victory, but at least he finally got one.
Peanuts
- Release Date
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1965 – 2005
- Directors
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Phil Roman
