Doe Season By David Michael Kaplan Full Extra Quality Text • Fresh & Extended

The story follows nine-year-old on a doe hunting trip in the northern American woods with her father, his friend Charlie, and Charlie’s son, Mac. An avowed tomboy, Andy is determined to prove herself in this male-dominated environment.

Charlie is the quiet, competent hunter. He is neutral, almost ghostly. He does not push Andy. But his silence is also a form of complicity.

Now, assuming you either have the text in front of you or plan to acquire it, let’s explore why this story has remained so vital for nearly 40 years. Doe Season By David Michael Kaplan Full Text

If you are a student, you may have been assigned this story in a freshman composition or women’s literature course. Here is why professors love it:

Mac loves his daughter, but he expresses love through shared activity—specifically, hunting. He is not cruel, but he is blind. He believes he is giving Andy a gift: competence, wilderness knowledge, toughness. But the gift is a weapon she does not want to wield. The story asks: Can love be violent even when it is gentle? The story follows nine-year-old on a doe hunting

When Andy wounds the doe, the mermaid fantasy shatters. She realizes she cannot reconcile the tenderness of the mermaid with the violence of the hunt.

The story begins with Andy's excitement and anticipation as he prepares to go on a hunting trip with his uncle, Dodd. As they venture into the woods, Andy is introduced to a world of masculinity and tradition that challenges his own sense of self. Through his interactions with his uncle and the other hunters, Andy is forced to confront the harsh realities of life and death, and the moral ambiguities that accompany them. He is neutral, almost ghostly

David Michael Kaplan was born in New York City in 1946. His literary reputation rests on two acclaimed short story collections, Comfort (1987) and Skating in the Dark (1991), and his writing guides Revision: A Creative Approach to Writing and Rewriting Fiction (1997). His work has been recognized with the Nelson Algren Award for short fiction. He lives in Chicago and teaches writing at Loyola University.