Mary Paul Letters

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At first Mary Paul is excited and eager to go to the mills. She sends a letter to her father asking permission to go to the mills, she is supported by her aunt and her friend who is also going to the mills. Mary wants to make money, buy her own clothes and live on her own. She feels the same way most teenagers even now feel, she want to get out of the house and live around girls her age. Her father gives her permission to go, and after a few months her next letter is full of frustration and sadness. It seems like she misses everyone from back home, she tells her father to write back; right when he reads the letter. She also tells him to come visit and have other people write to her and visit. She is quite frustrated with the fact that she has barely saved any money. She complains about how the ride to the mills was more expensive than she thought it would be. Mary is also frustrated will all her other expenses upon her arrival. Her third letter has a positive tone but negative content. It begins by saying all the bad thing that have happened to the people around her; trying to demonstrate the dangers in Lowell. It mentions people breaking their ribs and dieing. Then it describes her daily life and schedule which she expresses with positivity. Mary talks about how she is pretty good at work and how much money she has made and the things she has bought. She states that the mills are the best place for her, and she recommended it to other girls. As the letters go on and on, her attitude and tone towards the mills becomes more negative. In the last letter she expresses a miserable tone, she was sick and can barely work; and believes that she won't get paid very well for the last few days even though he has worked very hard.

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I think that the Lowell Experiment was a success and a failure; it was meant for young girls to work for a few years as a temporary job. Then quit to go back home to get married and start a family. The way Mary
y feels in the beginning is the way most girls probably felt. The mills was only a good place for a short amount of time, and the longer you stay the worse it gets. So i believe that it is a success as long as the girls follow the "experiment". In Mary's case I believe that she stayed there for too many years and she become more and more sick of it and it got to the point where she became miserable. The Lowell Experiment was partly a success and partly a failure, it gave young girls an opportunity to make money and live on their own in fairly good condition. But it had a limit to it and didn't give any room for improvement or advancement. Working at the mills after a certain amount of time becomes unproductive, but as we saw in Mary's case it was productive in the beginning. She made her own money, made many new friends, and was put in a good and kind environment. Until she got sick and had to go home for 6 months before returning back to the mill. This is where I believe it the experiment becomes a failure, she came back and got a worse position and made less money. Her position was taken up by some other girl and Mary could not do what she did before. This is the turning point in the "Lowell Experiment".