Doe Season-question # 3

The references to the woods and the ocean are very meaningful in this story. I feel that the woods being referred to by Andy as always the same references childhood years in most children. When you are young, things seem to be the same and never changing for many years until that child is forced to grow up and realize that things change, situations change and the world itself changes. In most cases, it is very comforting to both children and adults to know that some things never change. When things do not change, then we do not have to deal with issues, questions and decisions. But when things change, then we must do what we can to either change with it or accept the change for whatever reason. Going from being a child to an adult is one of the hardest parts of life. In this story there were also references to the ocean being huge and empty yet always moving. This, in my opinion, refers to the advancement into adulthood. It is at first very huge and big and also very empty because the new adult has not experienced enough to fill their "ocean", so to speak. The ocean is always moving and never quiet just like life when you are an adult. At the end of this story it refers to the "wind blowing through the treetops, like the ocean where her mother floated in green water, also calling Come in, come in, while all around her are the mocking of the terrible, now inevitable, sea.". This, again, is referring to the ocean as adulthood and the fact that she cannot turn back into childhood. She has experienced a taste of being an adult and has "gotten her toes" wet in the ocean and adulthood is now inevitable.
I, as all adults, often wish I could just turn back time and once again be a child for even a little while. The worries of a child are more like a river compared to the worries of an adult which is like the ever churning ocean.