Aging In May Sarton's At Seventy: A Journal

Literature can show either developmentalist or declinist views on Aging in the way in which the author talks of Aging, or for example the way the author portrays ones Aging experience. While an author with declinist views may paint themselves or an elderly character out to fit the classic decaying, weak stereotype, authors whom possess developmentalist views will instead paint the aging journey out to be one of growth or beauty. Author May Sarton displays this developmental view in her At Seventy: A Journal (1987). One example of these developmental views can be found when Sarton (1987) writes, “ I suppose real old age begins when one looks backward... but I look forward to the years ahead” (p. 5). While a declinist may write that they dread
Instead of having these thought weigh her down, she uses them to continue growing and developing, which reflects on her developmentalist views. A final example of how Sarton uses literature to display aging as a developmental process is when she writes of all her role models as she grows old, and how her role models have continued their development and have truly mad something positive out their old age. For example, Sarton (1987) writes about how Eva Le Galliene, “triumphed in her eighties and shown a whole new generation what a great acting is” (p. 7) or how Camille Mayran, “has written a magnificent book in her nineties” (p. 7). Not only does Sarton provide these examples as to how development and growth can still occur in old age, but also tells how these figures serve as her inspiration into how she wants to age and continue to grow. May Sarton is successful in representing her views of developmental aging via literature, simply through how she chooses to convey and write about the aging experience, and how it does not have to be the stereotypical declinist