FREE ESSAY ON IS THERE A GOD?

IS THERE A GOD?

"Innocence Lost"
The short story written by David Michael Kaplan, "Doe Season" is what I have chosen to
analyze. "Doe Season" is about a young, innocent girl, named "Andy" who goes hunting with
her father, his friend "Charlie Spreun" and his 11 year-old son "Mac." At the beginning
of the story she is praying that they will get a deer. Throughout the story, the narrator
tells of Andy's past experienes, like when she saw the ocean for the first time and was
frightened. The narrator also mentions actual experiences she has within the hunting
trip, like when Mac asks her if she has ever seen "it" (a penis). She is also disgusted
when the young boy tells her that they sometimes cut the the deer's "it" off when a
process called "hogdressing" is being done (not realizing how cruel hunting can be). Once
the opportunity comes for her to shoot a deer, she wishes it would run away and wonders
why it does not. She shoots it, but it runs away. She can't believe what she did, and is
unable to fall asleep. That night, she has a bazaar experience of the deer coming right
up to her tent and allowing her to pet it. She sees the gaping wound, and reaches down
and feels the warm heart beating (realizing she was destroying a life). The next morning
they find it dead. She feels terrible and starts running away. The theme of the story is
the idea that in order to mature, a child must reconcile life with the reality of death.

The theme of the story is found directly within the title. I know from my own experience
about a real doe season. It is necessary that their be a time for only killing the
females since the population is much greater than that of bucks. Therefore, it controls
the ratio between female and male deer not to be so different. This implies that at the
same time the female innocence must unavoidably be destroyed, just as the doe must be. It
takes place only after the young Andy realizes that death is involved in this thing
called "Hunting."
There are three symbols in this story that have a great deal to do with the central
theme. Of course, the doe would represent the innocence being destroyed. The ocean is
supposed to be adulthood, when it is mentioned that "That was the first time she'd seen
the ocean, and it frightened her. It was huge and empty, yet always moving. Everything
lay hidden" (345-346). As well as the last context stating, "...all around her roared the
mocking of the terrible, now inevitable, sea" (354). Her mother's accidental exposal of
her breasts is a symbol of Andy's seeing that she will, one day, be like that. Her mother
is the only way of seeing what womanhood is like.
Finally, the changes made in the main character, Andy, have a lot to do with the the
central theme. She first prays, " Please let us get a deer" (348). After she shoots the
deer, she thought, "What have I done" (352)? At the end, when she watches her father cut
the deer open, Andy started running away from them. "Charlie Spoon and Mac and her
father--crying 'Andy, Andy' (but that wasn't her name, she would no longer be called
that)" (354). Each experience enabled her to lose a little bit of innocence each time.
Actually, for a child to advance and grow in life, it takes the loss of innocence. So
that is what the change in the character was; her loss of innocence. 
It is clearly shown throughout each and every one of the elements that in order to fully
become an adult, a child must come to terms that living comes along with the difficult
reality of dieing. In the sense that the child's loss of innocence cannot be avoided,
just as the doe's loss of life cannot be. This is just a part of life, a part of growing,
a part of becoming an adult. Everyone goes through it. Everyone has their own personal
experience of the loss. This little girl's was conveyed in the scenario of death.
Bibliography
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