The Catcher in the Rye: D.B. Caulfield

Keeping with the theme of characters in the novel The Catcher in the Rye that are in Holden Caulfield’s family, I will write my thoughts and descriptions of Holden’s older brother D.B. Caulfield. I see D.B. as a pretty cool person. Although he does not come up a whole lot in the story, and he is not in it at all physically, he influences Holden quite a bit. At one point, he wrote a volume of short stories, which Holden greatly enjoyed. Holden found these stories to be very true and down to Earth even though they were not exactly real. When D.B. moved to Hollywood, which happened before the start of the story, Holden feels as though he sold out in many ways. Holden says that Hollywood is filled to the brim with phonies of all kinds. Therefore, if D.B. moves to Hollywood and tries to make it with his great stories and other writings, then he is no better than the other phonies there are. I believe D.B. has found a job writing for some sort of Hollywood movies. I think this is okay because he is following hid dream, and I assume he is making very good money while doing it. Although he may be selling out, he is probably sticking to his roots of writing the short stories. At least I hope he is, and if not, then I agree with Holden that he is becoming a phony. However, I think I have a pretty good grasp on the kind of person D.B. is, and I would say that in Hollywood, he is staying true to his writing heritage. I think he is writing dramatic and possibly comedic movies while in Hollywood. Coming from the Caulfield family, I believe that is the type of movie best fitting for him and the rest of the Caulfields. If one of his movies did ever make it big, then I am sure Holden would end up supporting him, and he would go see it.