"In all this world, there is no heavier burden than a great potential." - Linus van Pelt
Okay I won't pretend that I was a dedicated Charlie Brown and Peanuts fan because I was not. I didn't read the comic strip, and I only saw snippets of the show. I did however watch I good portion of the show's Halloween episode in school recently. The character that stood out most to me in particular was Linus van Pelt. Linus, one of, if not the youngest of the characters, was highly philosophical and intelligent despite the age handicap. That doesn't mean he wasn't childish in his own way too. He carried a blanket around with him a lot and made up The Great Pumpkin, sort of the Santa Claus of Halloween.
I had already watched the then five seasons of Lost by the time I watched this particular Halloween special. I couldn't help but find some sort of connection between Linus Van Pelt and Benjamin Linus, Lost's most diabolical anti-hero. Obviously I noticed they both had the name Linus. But they are also both extremely intelligent. Often times Linus would be the one to make revealtions for his friends that would make everything clear, something Ben would have to do too. I suppose the main similarity I saw though was The Great Pumpkin thing.
You see, Linus did more than just create The Great Pumpkin for kicks. He sort of made his own theology behind it, like it was some holy thing people could worship. Ben Linus did sort of the same thing with the Island's mysterious true ruler, "a great man" named Jacob. He claimed to be the only one who Jacob speaks to and united the Island's native inhabitants through their belief in him as well. There was a reversal in how this was seen by other people in either character's case: for Linus, no one believed him except for one person, Sally Brown, who believed out of her adoration for Linus; for Ben, just about everyone believed in him except for John Locke, who was convinced that Ben was the real person behind everything. Sally and Locke are similar however as they stick with either Linus to bare witness to their supposed deity. And for each pair of believers, their journies ended in disappointment. Linus and Sally waited all Halloween Night in a pumpkin patch waiting for The Great Pumpkin. Way late into the night, after all trick r' treaters had gone home, it never came and Sally was furious. Linus stubbornly assured her and himself that The Great Pumpkin would show up. Ben and Locke trekked all the way through the jungle and arrived at a cabin. There was nothing inside that Locke could see. Ben insisted that Jacob was sitting in a chair that appeared to be empty, going so far as to talk to the chair as if someone was there. Both Linus and Ben did not stop insisting that the mystical creature they believed was real. Both Sally and Locke suffered due to their humouring of their respective Linus: Sally missed out on trick r' treating and having fun with her friends, and Locke got shot and left to die in a ditch. Both of these stubborn believers came out looking like real "blockheads."
Also about Linus and his security blanket, Ben has something like a blanket that he relies on to "protect him" in cases when he can't do it with his own intelligence. Ben is revealed at some point that he can call upon The Monster, the pillar of black smoke. Linus at times uses his blanket as a weapon and the blanket is often thought of as it's own active entity. Ben uses The Monster to attack a group of mercenaries contracted to capture him and The Monster is definitely an active entity. Hmm...
I just thought it over after awhile, and realized that the connection between these two goes deeper than their name. It was kind of interesting.
This has been the first of a few Lost analysis' I have in the works, from Your Modest Guru. Thanks for reading.
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