Where does Holden fear he might disappear, as described in the text?

• A. The edges of a curbstone.
• B. The museum's mummy room.
• C. The carrousel.
• D. The bigness of New York City.

Answer: (D)

Holden’s fear centers on losing himself in something vast and overpowering. The big, bustling world of New York City stand-ins for adulthood and the crowd—things he distrusts and wants to逃避 from. When he imagines the city’s bigness, it’s not just its size he’s wary of, but the possibility that a person could vanish inside it, become invisible, and lose their sense of who they are. That idea captures his anxiety about growing up and about not being able to hold onto authenticity in a world that feels overwhelming.

The other images don’t tap into that same sense of existential threat. The edges of a curbstone suggest a narrow boundary or risk in a moment, not the sweeping fear of becoming unseen in a city. The mummy room is a contained, almost static setting, not a symbol for the overwhelming scale of adult life. The carrousel relates more to childhood and Phoebe than to Holden’s fear of disappearing into the adult world.