The Doe Season Symbolism

Andy is a nine year old girl -- small for her age -- who ventures into the brutally cold, dark woods along with three men on a hunting trip for doe. As a tomboy, she is used to participating in male activities, but this one forces her to face the challenge of deciding which of the two worlds she wants to live in: her mother’s or father’s. Previously she had always been daddy’s “honeybun” or “punkin’”, always sticking by his side, such as in refusing to go into the ocean with her mother and staying with her father only waist deep the summer prior. However during this hunting trip, Andy shifts away from the male lifestyle and joins her mother as a female. In his short story, “Doe Season”, author Michael David Kaplan uses symbolism to highlight gender roles and the strict separation of the male and female domains. [5) A

Within the story, the narrator comments on how Andy’s mother is probably at home doing dishes and making coffee as is considered to be the female’s role in this story. The author shows that women are expected to stay home and look after the house and care for the family while the men provide for it. Andy’s mother even packed the hunting party a meal for their trip and as expected, Andy is the one who cleans up after the meal. The doubt shown by the men as to whether or not Andy would be able to shoot the doe and their surprise when she does show that it is unorthodox for women to participate in these male activities as it is outside of their domain. They are expected to be caring to life, even animals, while the men are the tough ones who are able to kill it. After she does shoot the doe, Andy acts like what is expected of women and eventually it is what pushes her into accepting that she is one. The women and men both play very stereotypical roles of what women and men should be like and therefore symbolize how gender roles are applicable to