What is Holden implying when he says his brother D.B. is out in Hollywood 'being a prostitute'?

• A. He writes movie scripts there
• B. He is giving people what they want
• C. He is being metaphorical
• D. He is working in television

Answer: (D)

Holden is using a harsh image to show his disdain for what he sees as selling out to the reach of mass entertainment. When he says his brother is in Hollywood “being a prostitute,” the point isn’t just that D.B. lives far away or works in show business—it's that he’s trading his craft for money and fame. In the novel, D.B. has moved to Hollywood to write movie scripts, and Holden treats that as compromising art for profit, a critique of the film industry’s commercialization.

So the implication is that D.B. is doing film work in Hollywood, i.e., writing for movies, rather than pursuing more serious or high-minded art. The line isn’t merely a metaphor about the concept of selling out in general; it targets the specific path of turning literary talent into Hollywood material. This aligns with Holden’s broader distrust of phoniness in adulthood and his belief that art becomes trivialized when driven by profit and mass appeal.

That’s why the idea that he’s writing for movies in Hollywood fits best. It’s less about the broader notion of “giving people what they want,” and more about the concrete role of a writer in the film industry, which is what Holden is criticizing. It’s not simply a metaphor without real-world meaning, and it isn’t specifically about television.