Doe Season Analysis

It takes place only after the young Andy realizes that death is involved in this thing called "Hunting." There are three symbols in this story that have a great deal to do with the central theme. Of course, the doe would represent the innocence being destroyed. The ocean is supposed to be adulthood, when it is mentioned that "That was the first time she'd seen the ocean, and it frightened her. It was huge and empty, yet always moving. Everything lay hidden" (345-346). As well as the last context stating, "...all around her roared the mocking of the terrible, now inevitable, sea" (354). Her mother's accidental exposal of her breasts is a symbol of Andy's seeing that she will, one day, be like that. Her mother is the only way of seeing what womanhood is like. Finally, the changes made in the main character, Andy, have a lot to do with the central theme. She first prays, " Please let us get a deer" (348). After she shoots the deer, she thought, "What have I done" (352)? At the end, when she watches her father cut the deer open, Andy started running away from them. "Charlie Spoon and Mac and her father--crying 'Andy, Andy' (but that wasn't her name, she would no longer be called that)" (354). Each experience enabled her to lose a little bit of innocence each time. Actually, for a child to advance and grow in life, it takes the loss of innocence. So that is what the change in the character was; her loss of innocence. It is clearly shown throughout each and every one of the elements that in order to fully become an adult, a child must come to terms that living comes along with the difficult reality of dieing. In the sense that the child's loss of innocence cannot be avoided, just as the doe's loss of life cannot be. This is just a part of life, a part of growing, a part of becoming an adult. Everyone goes through it. Everyone has their own personal experience of the loss. This little girl's was conveyed in the scenario of death.