Hunting Symbolism Analysis

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Pages: 5

Hunting has long been considered an initiation into manhood. This particular story follows a female who is going through the strenuous process of hunting for the first time, but proves to be too much of a psychological burden to her. The overall theme of this short story is the coming of age, the initialization into a more mature creature. Mac has already been hunting with his father before, but Andy has never shot a living thing. Her father had raised a tomboy that was most likely taught that hunting was an acceptable, moral practice. When she was confronted with the opportunity to shoot the doe, she acted on her father's will and distanced herself from her own innocent mind. Once she had realized that she had killed a living creature, her innocence begins to fade quickly and her conscience assaults …show more content…
These feelings gnaw at Andy, so much that they keep her awake that night. She later falls asleep and experiences a dream that furthers her feelings of deep disturbance. This dying of innocence can be viewed as Andy becoming a more mature creature. As stated before, symbolism plays a large part in this story. The first evidence of symbolism is in the title. The title can be taken literally and figuratively. The characters are hunting for doe in the woods because it is in fact doe season. The title explains the event of the story that one might expect from reading it, hunting for deer. The other use of the title “Doe Season” is a symbol for the realization of death and maturity. While the hunters are hunting for deer in the woods, another thing is also being hunted, Andy's innocence and immaturity. While The story depicts the death of a doe, the story also depicts the death of Andy's old, innocent self. This creates a double meaning in the title where the title can take you down the literal road of the story, or the