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   dymatsuoka

   eNotes Editor

   The narrator in the story is Holden Caulfield, and in Chapter 1 of Catcher in the Rye, we learn that the Holden's brother D.B. is in Hollywood.  Hollywood is not too far from where Holden is staying right now, and D.B. comes to visit his brother "practically every weekend".  D.B has a Jaguar, and is planning on possibly driving Holden home next month, if Holden ends up going home at that time.  D.B.'s car cost a lot of money.  It is an English car and "can do around two hundred miles an hour".  According to Holden, the Jaguar cost D.B. close to four thousand dollars.

   Holden says that D.B. is rich, but he didn't used to be.  D.B. used to be "a regular writer", and he wrote a "terrific book of short stories" called The Secret Goldfish.  Holden thinks that the best story in the book is "The Secret Goldfish", which is about a little kid who "wouldn't let anybody look at his goldfish because he'd bought it with his own money". 

   D.B. no longer writes what Holden considers to be serious literature.  He works in Hollywood now, probably writing screenplays or something along that line, and he makes a lot of money.  Holden does not approve of what his brother is doing.  He thinks that D.B. is prostituting himself just to make money, writing material that is unworthy of his great talent (Chapter 1).

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/catcher-in-the-rye/chapter-1-summar...

   http://www.enotes.com/catcher-in-the-rye/characters

   http://www.enotes.com/catcher-in-the-rye/themes

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   Posted by dymatsuoka on Sunday June 7, 2009 at 12:25 AM