I Go Back To May 1937 By Sharon Olds

No matter how bad the situations seem they all happen for a reason. Sharon Olds had to realize this through her own pain and suffering. She portrays herself as the speaker who goes back to May of 1937, and sees her parents. In “I Go Back to May 1937” she tells a story of when her parents were still just dating. They were just about to graduate and get married. Instead of feeling joyful or smiling at the sight of them she had a completely different reaction. She wanted to go up to them and stop them. Maybe they looked innocent then, but she knew that they would not remain that way for long. By telling the story of her parent’s ignorance, betrayal, and the difficult decisions that soon follow, Sharon Olds shows that the will to live helps people

She says that, “They are just kids, they are dumb. All they know is they are / innocent, they would never hurt anyone.” (Olds 848, 10-12). This quote shows that they used to be innocent kids. She calls them dumb. They are dumb because they don’t know what she knows. They don’t see that one day they will no longer be those innocent kids. Their innocents as kids led them to not have much power which they always secretly wanted. For them having children let them finally have the power they wanted but they took advantage of it and used it in the wrong ways. Sharon saw this and finally understood that it was not her fault, and this realization made her stronger and helped

She knew that those innocent people she was looking at would change, and be the reason that her childhood was not an easy one. She wanted to change it all and make them stop. She wanted to go up to them and tell them, “you are going to do things you cannot imagine you would ever do, / you are going to do bad things to children, / you are going to suffer in ways you never heard of, / you are going to want to die” (Olds 848, 15-19). This shows that her parents betrayed her by just being together and no longer being innocent. They changed from who they seemed to be right in front of her; into the people that she had known her whole life. In her eyes they no longer are innocent people who would never hurt anyone. They turn into the people who hurt her and do bad things to her. As a child, Sharon’s parents told her that she was “going to hell” (“Sharon”). She was betrayed and treated badly as a child. Their betrayal was the reason that she was faced with her difficult decision. If they never would have betrayed her, she never would have wanted to stop them from being together and never would have had the chance to make this decision. Now she has a chance to stop them from getting together and stopping all of her