Doe Season

I found this story very interesting. A nine year old girl not quite ready it seems to choose between femininity and masculinity. Andy's father seems to want a son or boy to do masculine things like hunting together. Andy remembers going to see the ocean with her mother and father and how her father was not as consumed by the ocean as her mother was. I think in this story the ocean may symbolize her mother and femininity and the forest and hunting may symbolize masculinity and her father. On page 459 Andy remembers her trip to Jersey and the ocean as being awkward. This is maybe to say she is too young and awkward to find comfort in womanhood yet. Andy trying to find her way finds herself on a hunting trip with her proud father. Andy is fine with the trip for the most part until she shoots a doe but the supposed dead doe gets up and runs. This causes Andy to dream in a way that allows her to feel the pain the deer feels. On page 466 where it is said that Andy's arm is engulfed by the shot gun wound of the deer. And later when the gutting of the deer begins Andy runs. I believe Andy is being pulled by her parents to choose their desires but in the end Andy finds that she does not like the Jersey ocean side nor does she like hunting. Maybe all Andy would like is the approval of both her parents and to fit in. Not because she is a girl but because she is human; male or female. On page 467 it is stated that she would no longer be called Andy. I think this is of her choosing. It could be that the hunting trip had obscured her from trying to be her dad's son and instead to be herself.