I feel that New York is a city of transience. People are constantly moving here from other places and also constantly moving away. A person is capable of escaping their past when moving to this city (or any new place, of course). A person can also escape the present while still living here if they desire to do so. It’s a big city and there are so many people you can walk ten blocks or take a subway and become someone new or live a new life. The use of a pseudonym and an undefined past represents the state of escape and transience Holly exists in. She is searching for freedom by having the least amount of ties or stability in one sense, and in doing so she is committed to a certain type of existence, which is full of contradicting values and desires that may be just as constraining as any ‘traditional’ life, or the life she is trying to be free of.