Holden doesn't approve of D.B.'s writing for Hollywood instead of being a novelist. When he calls D.B. a prostitute, he means that his brother is selling his art as a writer to the highest bidder just as a real prostitute sells his or her body. Using a term like "prostitute" clearly conveys the depth of Holden's scorn for the kind of writing D.B. is doing. Recall that one of Holden's favorite works is "The Secret Goldfish," which D.B. wrote. He believes that his brother is wasting his talent and his art as a screenwriter.
What does Holden mean by saying his brother D.B. is in Hollywood "being a prostitute"?
Holden means that his brother is working as a film writer and that this is a form of prostituting his talent, that is, doing something purely for money and not for genuine love of art or creative self-expression. It is common for people to be called prostitutes, and even to consider...
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themselves prostitutes, if they are working at something they despise and doing it solely for money. Holden might have said that D.B. was being a hack. The term "hack writer" has become a more common tag than "prostitute," but it means about the same thing. Holden may have picked up the notion of his brothers' being a prostitute from his brother, who despised what he was doing but liked the big money to be made in Hollywood and was being morally undermined by the work he was doing and the cynical people he had to associate with. Many talented novelists took work in Hollywood and despised the industry and themselves for turning out cheap, insincere dramas. These included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Parker, and William Faulkner. What is especially demeaning about being a hack writer in Hollywood is that the writer has to take orders from inferior men who control the purse strings.
Holden has the highest opinion of his brother D.B. as a writer. Holden is also a pretty good reader, has read many books, and does well in his English classes; so, he feels like he can be a critic on the issue. Apparently, D.B. wrote a collection of short stories and called it "The Secret Goldfish." Holden thought it was really high-quality; therefore, he thinks that D.B. is doing something beneath his abilities by writing in Hollywood. Not only that, but he hates the fact that his older brother is writing for movies because he also hates movies. Holden doesn't believe that actors are authentic, but complete phonies. Everytime he goes to a movie, he can't accept the actors as the characters they are playing because he can only see the actors as themselves. Overall, Holden is very disappointed when D.B. backs away from writing literary works for writing superficial stories for movies.
Another thing that Holden doesn't like is that D.B. has a lot of money for writing movies. He says the following:
"He just got a Jaguar. One of those little English jobs that can do around two hundred miles an hour. It cost him damn near four thousand bucks. He's got a lot of dough, now. He didn't use to. He used to be just a regular writing, when he was home" (1).
When Holden refers to how much money D.B. makes, this is probably where he makes the connection to his brother being a prostitute. He gets paid a lot of money to do something degrading and obscene in Holden's book. Therefore, D.B. has sold himself like a prostitute.
It means that his brother is out there being a sellout. According to Holden, the entire world, especially people who love appareances, looks, and the superficial (namely, the Hollywood society) are phony, fake, and Holden hates them. At first he was a huge fan of his brother for his writing ability. Holden held that quite dear. When the brother got a chance to make movies Holden felt that he was just being a sell out and a fake like the rest.