Doughboy (character)

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Darin "Doughboy" Baker (1974-1991) or simply Doughboy is a fictional character from the 1991 film Boyz N the Hood. He was portrayed by Ice Cube.

When the film first starts in 1984, Darin "Doughboy" Baker is a 10-year-old child growing up in the rough streets of South Central Los Angeles. He got his nickname "Doughboy" because he is overweight. He lives with his mother Brenda, and his football playing half-brother Ricky (Morris Chestnut). The boys have a neighbor, Tre Styles (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), the protagonist of the film, who is guided by his father Furious (Laurence Fishburne). While their mother dotes upon Ricky, who has a different father from Doughboy, she neglects and mistreats Doughboy from early on. Despite the different treatment, Doughboy loves and stands up for his brother, picking a losing fight with an older boy to get Ricky's football back from him. Later on in the film, Doughboy tells his friends and his brother Ricky that he is going to the store, despite the fact that he doesn't have any money. The LAPD find him at his house and arrest him for shop lifting.

Seven years later, in 1991, Doughboy is released from prison, having spent time there for unspecified crimes. He is now portrayed by Ice Cube. He has a jheri curl and a gold 1964 Chevy Impala lowrider with Daytons. He is a drug dealer, who spends most of his time with his homies on his mother's front porch, dealing in the neighborhood, or rolling his lowrider to Crenshaw Boulevard. After being imprisoned, Doughboy's family have a party for his release in the back of the Baker home. During his time in prison, Doughboy put on muscle and spent his time reading, and is noticeably contemplative and intelligent. His mother, however, still neglects him, and his brother, Ricky, who now has a live-in girlfriend and baby, is set to go to USC on a football scholarship. Later in the movie, Ricky is murdered and Doughboy, with his homies, hunt down and murder the men that killed his brother. After that he talks with Tre, in the film's coda, in which he speaks about the killing and the death of his brother, summing up the grim, cyclical nature of life in the ghetto. The murders, and the lack of love from his mother and the loss of his brother have left him empty, riddled with survivor's guilt, and recognizing that he is probably soon to be murdered himself in revenge for the killings as the cycle of violence continues. Tre sends him off letting him know that he has one brother left, Tre. In the closing subtitles of the movie, it is said that the next day, Doughboy saw his brother buried. 2 weeks later, he was murdered as well.