"Doe Season" - Question 3

Doe Season may be called a "coming of age" story. Andy goes through the hunting trip at first so excited to be there and then realizing that she does not want anything to do with the doe once she is put face-to-face with it.

Andy's thoughts, "They were always the same woods," may lead one to think that she is not ready for things in life to change. (456) "The thought made her feel good," when she thought of them stretching from her home to the hunting spot. (456)Nothing changes, life is still going on beyond the woods.

At the beginning of the trip Andy is faced with the fact that others on the trip do not believe she should be there. They feel that because she is a girl and should not like hunting or be a part of it. At lunch that first day her father let her have a cup of coffee stating they wouldn't tell momma. This would be one of the coming of age comparisons. Much more happens during the trip to add to this. The conversation with Mac in the tent the first night. Asking her questions she did not want to answer.

Then she finds the doe and brings the others. While coming up on it she wishes that it would run away. When her father asks her if she will take the shot she does not want to. She thinks of it all in a dream.

We can reflect back to earlier as they were walking that first day and Andy thought of the wind "blowing through the treetops, it sounded like the ocean, and once Andy thought she could smell salt in the air." Her thoughts on the ocean as scary and not knowing come back to the reader. She was unaware of how she would feel and what would happen. Just as growing up does to all.