SAT Reading & Writing Question of the Day

From 'The House on Dorian Street' (2003) by Elijah Penner. The gate still complained, though what it said seemed smaller than before. Paint once daringly white had thinned to a memory of chalk; the mailbox, which towered in my mind, barely reached my hip. I stood at the curb rehearsing a knock I would not give. A stranger's sedan gleamed in the driveway. It was not anger that kept me there but the feeling of arriving late to a party where the jokes had already been told. I tried to summon the rush of summer evenings, the moths flocking to the porch light, my father whistling for us to come in. The light was on now, and I could have gone up the walk, but the past would not answer the door any more than I could bring myself to ring.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?