OCA Part 5 Project 6 Exercise

This exercise was about theme and symbolism.

I chose to work on a short story I wrote back in January from a prompt "A Twilight Memory".

The "theme" of the story is "LOST LOVE"

It is the eve of Kim's wedding and at 36 she is finally getting married, to a guy called Alan, who she met a couple of years ago. Alan is a widower, kind, gentle, thoughtful, the kind of man you can depend on.

Sitting alone in her old bedroom at her mothers house she finds herself dreaming of the lost love of her 20's, Stephen. He was exciting, passionate and dangerous. They were engaged, but Stephen got a job offer in the States, too good to refuse. Kim couldn't go, as her father was dying of cancer and she felt she couldn't leave her mother to deal with it alone. Their long distance relationship made things impossible and they decided to split.

She wears a small heart shaped gold locket that Stephen bought her just before he left for America, she never takes it off. She's told Alan that a dear friend bought it.

Part of her is still in love with Stephen, always has been, but now, she's faced with the choice of spending the rest of her life waiting for Stephen or trying to be happy with a good man who loves her......

I'm really struggling fitting "symbolism" into this story. Hearts symbolise love so I guess the gold locket could play a large part in the story. I'm not sure that I would naturally use symbolism in my work.