"Doe Season"

Even though this story centers around a young girl who goes hunting with her father, the title is symbolic of even more that is going on. Doe season is very important because after all, Andy is hunting for deer with her father. However, it was also a very important season for Andy who could be seen as the female doe. Her father is heckled by others and taunted about how he should have had a son instead of a daughter because of the way Andy behaves and how she prefers to be called Andy rather than her name Andrea. Throughout the story is a struggle for Andy and whether or not she should join in on the hunting. It is almost as though her struggle is black and white, just like the days go from day to night. She often thinks to herself, " There has to be just one moment when it all changes from dark to light,"(461) which could mean more than just daylight. It certainly suggests the struggle that she was having within herself to find the right and wrong in the hunting. Even when she is near the doe and about to take a shot her feelings alter. Just before the shot the deer to her began to look like, " a picture on a calendar, not real, and she felt calm,"(464). Moments later she is upset because of any pain that the deer may be suffering. She was waiting for that moment to turn from dark to light. I think at the end of the story Andy realized that this was something that she did not want to be a part of. It was something that she could not let herself be and that is why at the end she decides that, " that wasn't her name, she could no longer go by that," ( 467). The name Andy was masculine, and this was not a lifestyle that she could adapt to. It wasn't something that she could accept and that name didn't meant to her what it used to.