Doe Season

The contrast between the woods and the ocean suggests the transition Andy must make from childhood to adulthood because in paragragh 1 the narrator states, "They were always the same woods...They were the same woods that lay behind her house, and they stretch all the way to here, she thought, for miles and miles, longer than I could walk in a day, or a week even, but they are still the same woods." This shows that Andy indeed finds comfort and reassurance in the fact that the woods are still the same. Children like anything that comforts them or reassures them that they are safe. In Andy's case, it's the woods. In paragraph 45 where the narrator says, "She and her parents had gone last summer to stay for a week at a motel on the New Jersey shore. 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. If you walked in it, you couldn't see how deep it was or what might be below; if you swam, something could pull you under and you'd never be seen again." This is the way that Andy thinks of the ocean and it's described from a child's point of view. A person who has made the transition into adulthood would most likely describe the ocean in a different way, signifying that they are indeed an adult. There are adults that are scared of everything that isn't soft, fuzzy, or even safe, but an adult who had never seen the ocean before would probably think it's simply amazing. An adult might describe it as beautiful, glistening sun over the water, etc. An adult would probably just walk right in, not thinking about how deep it was or the fact that something could pull you under and you'd never be seen again.