Mary Paul Response

During the time where Mary Paul sent letters home from Lowell, her mood and writing tone became worse and worse.  She went from being optimistic and hopeful to being sick and out of a job. In the first letter, she states that she thinks she will have more opportunity in Lowell then she will ever have back home. In her next letter, she states that she has arrived in Lowell and things are going well.  She is making good wages and the boarding place is very nice. However, in the next couple letters, she talks about how she is feeling homesick and wishes her family would come down to see her. She also talks about how her pay is decreasing and the factory overseers are promising wages will return. Finally, in her last two letters, Mary talks about how she was sick for six months and even lost her job. She tried to return but her job was no longer there when she returned.  Mary's experiences show the difficulties encountered at the Lowell mills.

 

Mary's experience represents the success of the "Lowell Experiment" because it did to Mary exactly what is was designed to.  The Lowell Experiment was designed to bring teenage girls to Lowell to work in factories for generally low wages and then after a few years, when the girls became older, the factories would replace the old girls with new younger ones. This describes Mary's experience pretty well because she went to Lowell as a teenage girl and worked very hard in the mills. She started out making good wages but this soon declined. She then became very ill and the factory had no problem firing her and replacing her with another eager young girl.