Short Story 'Doe Season' By David Michael Kaplan

What was supposed to just be a hunting trip, changed the life of a nine-year-old little girl named Andy in the short story Doe Season written by David Michael Kaplan. This short story was about two men and their children going into the woods for a weekend to hunt deer. At first, Andy was unwanted there by her father’s friend and son. Charlie Spoon and his son, Mac, thought only boys or men needed to hunt. During the story, their opinions changed a little when Andy was the only one who brought home a kill. The reason Andy’s father wanted her there was because he thought Andy was a tomboy who would enjoy hunting. For Andy, this experience was a “coming of age”. She matured tremendously from the start of the story to the end of it. The theme of this story is how the death of an animal changed Andy’s life. When Andy first decided to come along on the guys hunting trip, she did not realize what she had actually got herself into. The reason we can make this conclusion is because of the way Andy paused when she went to take a shot at the doe. The book explains this by saying: …show more content…
Her finger weekend on the trigger. Still, she nodded at what her father said and sighted again, the cross hairs lining up in exactly the same spot- the doe had hardly moved, its brownish-gray body outlined starkly against the blue-backed snow. It doesn’t know, Andy thought. It just doesn’t know. And as she looked, deer and snow and faraway trees flattered within the circular frame to become like a picture on a calendar, not real, and she felt calm, as if she had been dreaming everything- the day, the deer, the hunt itself. And she, finger on trigger, was only a part of that dream”