Symbolism In 'Closely Held'

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If you love two people at the same time, choose the second, because if you really loved the first one, you wouldn't have fallen for the second. In the short story “Closely Held” by Allegra Goodman, Orion has a girlfriend, Molly but soon discovers he prefers Sorel over Molly. In this story, it shows that Orion picks Sorel over Molly because he appreciates her presence more than Molly and also that he forgets about Molly when he is with Sorel. As the story “Closely Held” goes on, Orion appreciates Sorel’s presence much more than Molly’s. This all starts when Orion sees Sorel working for the first time, “… but the one he looked for was the new girl who’d just started on the Lockbox team. He was always conscious of her. (94)” This citation demonstrates that she had caught his eye and attracted him the first time he ever saw her as if it were “love…show more content…
When you are in love with someone, there is no other person on earth who can replace your loved one. As Orion and Sorel were closely standing due to the cold weather, “He could kiss her. He imagined kissing her, breaking the stillness, flustering her like that. (103)” This citation demonstrates that Orion wants to kiss Sorel, and has no doubt in his mind about doing so. He doesn’t even take into account that he is a taken man and doing so will be considered cheating. “Laughing, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned against him. […] Still, he loved the idea of protecting someone. (104)” This demonstrates that all of Orion’s attention and affection is on Sorel, blocking any kind of thought about Molly. The most important part of the story that is relevant to Orion forgetting about Molly is when Molly tells Orion not to forget to get her the milk, but Orion is “too busy” being with Sorel which leads him to forget about getting the milk, and especially forgetting about

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