"Doe Season"

“Doe Season” was a very good short story. I think it really focused on the rite of passage idea. Here is a daddy’s girl, Andy, who wants to participate in the big ritual of deer hunting. However, it is not the rite of passage that I tried to predict. I envisioned Andy shooting a deer, getting an honorable spot in the group of guys, and more importantly making her father proud. I think that that is what Andy was expecting too. She even thinks that "there was no place else she would reather be" (Kaplan 458). In reality, Andy creates her own identity through this rite of passage. Not only does she finally realize what she values (not killing innocent animals for a sport), but she doesn’t give into peer pressure. Andy feels so guilty about killing her doe that she can’t bear to watch the guys slaughter it. As a result "Andy was running from them" when they preceeded to cut open her deer (Kaplan 467). She becomes Andrea. She is now a girl who realizes her love for animals and the woods but can’t handle the idea of killing a creature that is so innocent and defenseless. Andrea discovers a big lesson by learning that she doesn’t have to follow the norms of the people she was with. Maybe she disappointed her father, but she might have also made him realize that she is an independent person with independent values. A passage in the story that really stuck out to me and proves my point is …And they were all calling to her—Charlie Spoon and Mac and her father—crying Andy, Andy (but that wasn’t her name, she would no longer be called that)”(Kaplan 467).

Kaplan, David Michael. “Doe Season.” Kirszner, Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie, and Stephen Madell. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007. 456-467.