Snoopy is a beagle dog that cartoonist Charles Schwartz features in the most
popular comic strip in the world, "Peanuts". Snoopy has also been featured in movies, songs, etc. and is now an American icon. His independent nature has also made him a symbol of the "free spirit" attitude as
well as what is good about
America and its culture.
1. I've seen "Peanuts" strips in several languages like
German, French, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, Greek and many more.
2. In
college I saw a collection of items used in Roman Catholic parishes thruout the world. One item of note was a hymnal smuggled from communist
China, where religious practices of any kind generally aren't allowed. Each page had Chinese musical notation and the lyrics to a song (of course, I couldn't read the words!). At the bottom of each hymn page was a sketched drawing of Snoopy. He was always looking sad, sitting on a swing and crying, or looking out a window, or in some other sad or melancholy state. No doubt this was a relection of the total lack of liberties and freedoms in
China today. In this case Snoopy represents joy, cheer,
happiness and freedom, and in a totalitarian state there are none of those things.
