Which New York zoo does Holden visit with Phoebe?

Holden visits the Central Park Zoo with Phoebe.

Near the end of the novel, Holden meets Phoebe in New York after she arrives with a suitcase and asks to accompany him in his plan to leave town. When Holden refuses, she becomes angry, and he tries to repair the relationship by taking her to the Central Park Zoo.

The zoo visit is part of a larger sequence in Central Park that leads to the carousel. Holden watches Phoebe ride while rain falls, and the scene becomes one of the rare moments when he feels genuine happiness and emotional release.

Readers sometimes confuse the zoo with the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art, which Holden and Phoebe visit earlier. They also later go to the carousel, but the carousel is not the zoo itself. All three locations belong to Holden’s final New York outing with Phoebe.