"Doe Season" Question #3

David Michael Kaplan uses comparisons between the still, unchanging nature of the woods and the ever-changing scene of the ocean in his story “Doe Season” to mirror the transformation from child into adult. In the story the main character of Andy goes through a transformative experience while on her first hunting trip with her father, when first in the woods she begins to reflect on the peaceful environment, “They were always the same woods… deep and immense, covered with yesterday’s snowfall, which had frozen overnight” (Kaplan 456). The imagery in these passages is used to represent the serenity of childhood and how it remains undisturbed and pristine. “[I]t was like thinking of God; it was like thinking of the space between here and the moon” (Kaplan 456). Kaplan uses this passage as a homily on childhood, comparing the open, untouched wilderness to all of the experiences and wonder that lie in wait.

In contrast, Andy’s thoughts of the ocean cast light on the theme of the ever evolving nature of adulthood in the story. Facing the prospect of responsibility and the consequences that accompany it seems to be one theme that Mr. Kaplan wished to address, as shown by the allusion “That was the first time she’d seen the ocean, and it frightened her” (Kaplan 459). The narration goes on to follow Andy’s internal description of the seaside showing the distinction between the way she sees these two scenarios and the metaphorical contexts they represent; “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 never be seen again. It’s musky, rank smell made her think of things dying” (Kaplan 459). Here the author uses the ocean as a symbolic reference to maturity’s varying complexities and often grotesque nature which inevitably leads to death.

After her prize kill, the woods seem to change for Andy into an idealized form of itself with dark overtones, “The woods were more beautiful than she had ever seen them. The moon made everything ice-rimmed glimmer with a crystallized, immanent light, while underneath that ice the branches of trees were stark as skeletons” (Kaplan 466). This and the following scene seem to be a metaphor for Andy’s loss of innocence on her journey, maturing from a girl into a young woman and her desire to see and feel the way she did prior to these events.