"Doe Season" is a story that uses symbolisms and parallels to relate the turbulent and confusing transition of a young girl going through an initiation of a child into adulthood. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects is how the author uses the ocean and the forest to symbolize manhood and womanhood.
             The woods relate to the comfortable feelings that Andy has towards her father and manhood. Andy has spent her childhood as a tomboy and her Dad's sidekick, so the woods and her father represent something that makes her feel safe during this time of inevitable change in her life. "They were the same woods that lay behind her house and they stretched all the way to here, she thought, for miles and miles, longer than I could walk in a day, or a week even, but they are still the same woods. The thought made her feel good : it was like thinking of God...." (349) Two of the words which really stand out the most in that phrase are "the same". Andy is fearful of becoming a woman, so she is greatly comforted by something she is already used to, something that is "the same" as before. To her the woods are a place where she feels so safe that she even relates them to God.
             In great contrast, Andy is terrified of the ocean, which clearly symbolizes womanhood and relates to her mother. "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. If you walked in it you couldn't see how deep it was or what might lay below ; if you swam, something could pull you under and you'd never be seen again. It's musky, rank smell made her think of things dying. Her mother had floated beyond the breakers, calling to her to come in, but Andy wouldn't go farther than a few feet into the surf." (352) The ocean represents something new, different, and frightening. It is an extremely deep contrast to "the same" woods. The ocean is ne
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