This is the story’s climax. She is not rejecting her father—she is rejecting the false self he helped create. The car ride home is silent. She cries, and the story ends:
David Michael Kaplan's " Doe Season " is a celebrated short story, often studied for its exploration of a young girl’s loss of innocence during a hunting trip. It examines themes of coming-of-age and gender identity through the protagonist Andy, who confronts the harsh reality of mortality. Share public link
| Symbol | What It Represents | How It Functions in the Story | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | Childhood innocence, the familiar, and safety. | It is "always the same woods," a controlled, safe space where Andy has an identity that is comfortable, even if it is a masculine one. | | The Ocean | The uncharted territory of adulthood and female sexuality. | When Andy first sees the ocean, it is "huge and empty, yet always moving...everything lay hidden". This mystery and changeability frighten her, unlike the static comfort of the woods. | | The Doe | Andy's own emergent and vulnerable femininity. | The doe is not a powerful buck; it is a female animal, gentle and vulnerable. When Andy shoots it, she is, in a symbolic sense, attacking her own female nature. | | The Heart | The essential, life-giving, "alive" core of femininity. | Touching the doe's beating heart is the story's most powerful moment. It forces Andy to confront something warm and vital within herself that she has tried to suppress, and it "burns" her with the intensity of that truth. | Doe Season By David Michael Kaplan Full Text
appears as a contrasting symbol to the woods. For Andy, the ocean represents the fluid, mysterious, and terrifying world of womanhood. A key flashback reveals a memory of seeing her mother naked at the seashore, an image that filled her with discomfort and fear. Unlike the "always the same" woods which represent the safety and predictability of childhood, the ocean is "huge and empty, yet always moving". This movement mirrors the inevitable, unsettling changes of growing up.
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You can find the full text of this story in academic anthologies, such as The Norton Introduction to Literature , or in the author's collection Comfort , often available through local libraries or digital resources like Libby. Share public link
| Symbol | Meaning | |--------|---------| | | Phallic power, the burden of male violence, the expectation to kill. | | The doe | Andy’s female double. To shoot the doe would be self-annihilation. | | The gutting | The brutal demystification of death. Andy sees that killing is not heroic—it is bloody, smelly, and mechanical. | | The ocean | The unconscious, the feminine, the boundless, the pre-symbolic mother-child bond. | | Andy’s name | The central symbol of identity. “Andy” is a performance; “Andrea” is truth. | She cries, and the story ends: David Michael
Central to the story is the internal conflict of its protagonist, Andy. She is a dynamic character navigating two opposing worlds. On one hand, she is "Andy," a girl who rejects traditional femininity, preferring the company of her father and enjoying "male" activities. On the other, she is "Andrea," a girl on the cusp of womanhood, haunted by memories of the ocean and her mother's body. The story brilliantly captures her psychological turmoil through symbols and interactions.