An Analytic Review of David Kaplan's “Doe Season” “Doe season” is a short literary work featured in one of Kaplan's popular collections. “Doe Season” may be short in length relative to other types of literature, but exhibits a deep, underlying meaning that burrows deeper than the story itself. One of the key components to the creation of “Doe Season” is the symbolism it displays. The title itself is very symbolic, as well as the descriptive writing used in this short work. While “Doe Season” takes place in a common setting, traversing the woods while hunting, a few aspects of the story are unique in the sense that the story is told from a 9-year-old girl's perspective. While hunting has long been seen as a man's task or hobby, this story follows …show more content…
Other than her mother, Andy is the only female character in this story. This fact alludes to multiple facets of symbolism within the short novel. Andy is a 9-year-old girl with a very staunch, intelligent personality, yet possesses a very young and innocent mind. She is assumed to be the only child of a family of three, a mother and a father. Her relationship with her father plays a large roll in helping the reader understand why this story is taking place to begin with. It can be deducted from the story that Andy was very much raised as a tomboy and does not have a preference as to which one of her names she is called by. From the very first passage of the story, we can see that Andy is fond of the forest and acknowledges that the forest they will be hunting in is the same forest back behind her house. It is very possible that this could be the first time she is going hunting with her father. When she first wakes up very early in the morning, she is excited about the trip. Little does she know that the initial excitement of the first day will fade into feelings of fear and regret. It seems that Andy is a curious character, but is also very aware of what she is comfortable with and what is discomforting to her. This observation plays a prominent roll in the symbolism of the story. By the end of the hunting trip, Andy will have been drastically changed into something new through her experiences in the woods and in …show more content…
The protagonist is excited about the hunting trip, but initiates the event with a sense of innocence and curiosity. Another factor in Andy's willingness to go hunting may be in order to please her father or show that she is capable of doing everything a boy can do. While the hunters spend multiple days searching for game, Andy is the only one who comes in contact with the deer. While the characters hunt in the location where Andy saw the deer, Andy prays that they finally get a deer. On a second occurrence, she comes in contact with a deer. This time, the deer does not run away and stays stationary, grazing in the open. When the hunters finally spot the deer, Andy is asked if she wants to shoot it. Initially, she is frightened by the idea, but collapses under the weight of the peer pressure exerted by the impatience of Charlie and the expectancy of her Father. She finally holds the gun in her hand and aims the gun at the doe's chest area. While her mind began to blank out, she stopped thinking about the fact that she had never shot a living creature before and pulled the trigger. After the shot had been made, the doe eventually fell to the snow covered ground, and was assumed dead. Upon seeing the doe laying on the ground, the hunters walked steadily towards it, congratulating Andy for her clean shot. While
The book ‘Wildlife’ by Fiona Wood demonstrates several themes and techniques that are created by the author. ‘Wildlife’ is based on the students from Crowthorne Grammar and about their love lives, friendships and not fitting in. The novel includes challenging teenage moments, emotions decision-making, changes in friendship and the progress into adulthood. This essay will further discuss in detail the techniques, themes that are shown and used by the characters and how the author demonstrated a teenager’s life.
In Tomson Highway’s novel Kiss of the Fur Queen the opening passage transports the reader to the harsh, cold, and intense struggle of the caribou hunter, Abraham Okimasis during a championship husky sled race. Any race often proves to be physically and mentally exhausting for a person. Highway utilizes a fantastic variety of literary devices to dramatize Okimasis’ physical and emotional experience through his last leg of the race by creating a powerfully intense atmosphere through the effective use of descriptive imagery, passionate diction, repetition of words, and a tone of desperation.
For centuries, seasons have been understood to stand for the same set of meanings. Seasons are easily understood by the reader, and are easy for the writer to use; as Foster states, “Seasons can work magic on us, and writers can work magic with seasons” (Foster 192). The different seasons are a huge part of our lives; we live through each one every year, and we know how each of them impacts our lives. This closeness between people and nature allows us to be greatly impacted by the use of seasons in literature. In addition, Foster lays out the basic meanings of each season for us: autumn is harvest, decline, tiredness; winter is anger, hatred, cold, old age; summer is passion, love, happiness, beauty; and spring is childhood and youth. On the
So her trek into the woods was to kill an elk, like she had done with her father. However, it was the encounter with two older men, who assisted in gutting out the elk, that she had learned the most. “Did this make them somehow, distinctly like… fathers and daughter? The two men becoming the soil then, in their burial, as had her father- becoming as still and silent as stone.” Here, the connection between human interaction, and experiences with nature is shown vividly.
She had walked quite a long distance from the lake towards the huckleberry shrubs when she suddenly found herself facing a grizzly bear just twenty paces ahead of her. She wanted to run away that instant but her instincts stopped her and she slowly tried moving one step backward. When she did that the bear came one or two steps forward. She stopped and the bear stopped too. She saw Liam behind the
The short story, “Doe Season” written by David Michael Kaplan is about a young girl’s loss of innocence and hesitation towards womanhood. In this story, the protagonist, an eight year old girl joins in on a hunting trip with her father and some friends. During this trip, Andy learns that being one of the boys may not be what she aspires after all. A few literary elements Kaplan uses helps readers better understand the story while reading such as, the characters, setting, and symbolism.
While ,Cheryl Strayed’s writing uses ad extended metaphor to represent her self-discovery in nature; Bill Bryson depends on using similes to describe his love for nature and his experience on how he wants to becomes a “mainly man”; since this is the case, they try to portray their reasoning for going in the woods and going on difficult trails. In Cheryl Strayed’s book Wild, Strayed writes in the first person about her reasoning for going into the wild. In the beginning, the author gives the reader her present state. After she gives the reader a glimpse of her past life she starts to uses an extended metaphor of how her life is compared to her present state.
In the short essay “Why I Hunt” by Rick Bass, the writer gives the reader his personal perspective of what hunting is like for him. Rick Bass goes on to share the story of his family’s move from the hills of Fort Worth, Texas to the very remote Yaak Valley of Montana. The move to this area makes Bass want to hunt more since there is a better variety of prey, and due to everyone that has lived in what Bass calls “the Yaak”, has hunted their entire lives, he feels obligated to do it more than what he did when he lived in Texas (655). In “Why I Hunt, Bass argues that his love for hunting is an enjoyable hobby that develops his imagination and gets him in touch with nature, and that people should put down technology and try hunting. Bass uses imagery to show the beauty of hunting, and pathos to describe his emotions towards hunting.
First, the boy follows his father’s orders during the hunt. When they arrive at an ideal site for a camp, the boy “[helps] his father assemble their tent” (5). When his father hears a gunshot, they walk towards it and the boy obeys his father when he “[motions for the boy to be quiet” (21). His behaviours show his admiration and recognition of his father’s authority in hunting and as a rookie, views his father as his role model. He tries to imitate the adults’ actions to meet their expectations although he has little knowledge. When he is given his own gun, “he [is] proud of the gun, careful not to scuff it in the brush” (9), implying that he views this gun and the hunt as an act of bravery and his father who participates in this activity as a hero. As a result, he satisfies the adults expectations because he wants to be a good hunter like his father.
It is impossible to find a family that is problem free and does not go through its ups and downs. Seasons often marks a progress, here it not only sets the way for Doodles progress of becoming like a normal boy, but it is used as a way to show the growth of the sibling relationship between the two brothers. Seasons and weather play an important role in setting the tone and mood of the story. An example of the motif of seasons and weather is seen in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst as doodles progress goes along with each season. This motif is used to develop the relationship between Doodle and his brother as evident through the clove of seasons, summer, and storms.
The central idea of "Deer Hit" is that individuals will have the feeling of guilt and regret for things that they have done. The author Jon Loomis, establishes this idea using figurative language. In detail, Loomis uses imagery, which is when one is able to utilize the five senses in order to create an image.
The process of finding out who one is can be very turbulent and confusing. Through growing up one goes through so many different changes in terms of one's personality and deciding who they are and what they want to be. The little girl in David Kaplan's "Doe Season" goes through one of these changes, as do many other adolescents confused about who they are, and finds out that there are some aspects of a person's identity that cannot be changed no matter how hard he/she tries. <br><br>Andy is a nine-year-old girl who doesn't want to grow up to be a woman. When she talks of the sea and how she remembers her mother loving it and how much she hated it is a clue that she prefers to be a "boy". The sea is symbolic of womanhood and the forest is
As the deer fed at the marsh's edge, it's tail flickering as it nibbled tender and ripe green growth. Then the nervous animal pauses in it's feeding and lifted its head to listen. Whatever hint of danger the deer had sensed was ignored once the threat could not be located. It stamped a forefoot, lowered its head and began to eat once more, this deer had failed to detect a Florida panther that was downwind (going into the wind) crouched low in the underbrush. Amber eyes however, estimated the distance between himself and the deer. Then at the right moment attacked the deer, with bounds at over twenty feet at a time the panther exploded out of the underbrush pouncing on the deer and forcing it to the ground. Within fifteen seconds that
With your rifle aimed right behind its’ shoulder you gently squeeze the trigger. The loudness of the gun wakes everything up in the used to be calm nature, but only for a second. Then you get to go and check out your deer that you’ve been waiting months to take down. And that’s what hunting deer with a rifle is like. Rifle hunting is much different then the other types of hunting just cause everything is so calm and quite.
Sometimes her mom would make her help with cutting onions or peeling peaches and as soon as she was done she would run out the door when her mom’s back was turned. She viewed the chores inside the house was endless and depressing and would much rather work outside. She hears her mother stating that she can’t wait till the son, Laird gets bigger so he can do the chores outside and the girl can do the chorus inside with her. The mother states, “I just get my back turned and she runs off. It’s not like I had a girl in the family at all.” At this point the girl feels like she can’t trust her mother, she knows her mother loved her yet she feels like her mom is always plotting against her to keep her from working with her father. She didn’t expect her father to really listen to what her mother was saying, Laird, in her mind wouldn’t be able to do the job as well as she does. Looking at her father’s bloody apron she reminds that reader that the foxes were feed horse meat, other farmers whose horses will get old or injured would call her father and him and henry would go kill it and butchered it. However, if they already had a lot of meat they would keep them for a while. The winter she turned eleven they had two horses, Flora and Mack. It was this winter where she heard her mother go on more about her helping in the house. She states that she no longer feels safe because the people around her who thought the same way. She stated, “The word girl had formerly seemed to