The Foundling

“Many letters were from relatives of mentally defective girls from all over Pennsylvania, begging to have them admitted. These queries tended to come from men—husbands and uncles of mentally defective girls.”

Mary reflects on the letters that she is typing for Miss Hartley. Leary uses these letters to comment on the injustice that the girls face and highlight the unfairness of men being in total control of their fates. Additionally, this passage shows how easy it is for Mary to normalize these injustices through the label of “mentally defective,” highlighting the dangers of eugenicist rhetoric.

“Yes, there’s that too, but the lesson I meant is to never wander into a field of cows unless you know where the bull is keeping himself.”

Animals symbolize the dangers of men and patriarchy in the novel. Sister Rosemary tells the orphan girls an allegory about bulls killing for sport to help them understand that sometimes, men will take advantage of marginalized people, especially girls, because they can.

“Apparently, the nurse was doing favors for the girl. She spread rumors that the cousin’s husband sent her there to get a divorce, that she wasn’t insane. That’s why most asylums don’t like staff knowing inmates—it can cause problems.”

This is the first time that Mary encounters the unspoken system of surveillance and control at Nettleton. Bertie serves as a commentator on the corruption of the psychiatric and medical institutions throughout the novel. This shows how injustices thrive in isolation—Lillian is only able to escape once Mary acknowledges their connection and similarities.

“Some of us actually thought we women were equally franchised when we won the vote, but it’s still a man’s world, Miss Engle. We have to play by their rules, if we want progress.”

Dr. Vogel is a feminist and a eugenicist—a combination that was not uncommon in American first-wave feminism. She is the character who most regularly articulates the injustices that women face within a patriarchal and misogynistic system. At the same time, she perpetuates these injustices against others, particularly women she views as inferior to her.

“How could any girl not remember something like that? Many of my childhood memories are vague, yet I remember every second I spent alone with Uncle Teddy with dreadful clarity.” 

Mary is surprised by the assertion that Ida could forget her abuse. Leary utilizes Mary’s surprise about the various aspects of the girls at Nettleton to demonstrate how much rationalization must occur for institutions like Nettleton to persist. This is an early example of how Mary sees herself in the girls at Nettleton, even when she doesn’t want to.

“There’s plenty of girls here with stories like mine. Some worse. Ask people you know here about Francis Cotter. Her husband put her here so he could marry somebody else; her family tried to get her out through the court. That was ten years ago, she sleeps in the cot next to mine. The girls in the dairy, we’re all normal girls. Unlucky, maybe, but not feebleminded. Vogel knows this.”

Lillian shares that many of the girls working in the dairy and throughout Nettleton are normal girls. The difference between the women who are inmates, staff, and leaders of Nettleton grows progressively smaller as the novel continues. This quote emphasizes how men are ultimately in control of women’s fates—a woman could be sent to Nettleton simply because her husband was tired of her.

“Cows drink out of roadside puddles. Does that mean that the girls should do so as well? I sometimes wonder if men in prison camps—men who’ve murdered and committed real crimes, might receive better treatment than some of the girls here.”

Bertie shares her anger about the conditions the dairy girls endure. The quote illustrates the dehumanizing conditions that women at institutions like Nettleton faced, comparing them to cows. The hypothetical question about men’s conditions in prison evokes the particular mistreatment of women present throughout the novel.

“But, darling, you said it; she made poor choices. That’s different from being mentally defective. The girl you described doesn’t sound feebleminded, she sounds very smart. She’s there until she can’t have children. Right? So, we’re talking about twenty years locked up, maybe more? For what? Having a baby and lying about the father?”

Leary uses characters like Jake to comment on the absurdity and injustice of women being imprisoned for poor choices. Jake along with Bertie often are voices of reason that push Mary towards reflection. Their voices of dissent contrast the world presented by her first-person point of view, highlighting how one’s beliefs about the world are not necessarily the objective truth.

“That’s a bit much, Jake. I’ve spent hours listening to you and all your lofty ideas about social problems—labor, the poor, immigrants. But they’re just ideas—all conjured up in the comfort of your doting parents’ dining room, or in cafés with your writer friends. You think you know everything about poor people, but you’ve never been poor. You’ve no idea what it’s like to be a girl like Lillian, alone in a dangerous city with no family… nothing.”

Class is an issue that recurs throughout the novel. Mary is defensive of her identity as a poor orphan and dismisses the idea that Jake would know more about living in poverty than she does. Despite growing up with a family, however, Jake is still marginalized, and his work with unions allows him to see how poverty affects people. Many characters in the novel are complex and navigate intersectional marginalization.

“There were laws against interracial marriage here, but no laws barring a good Christian American girl from marrying the offspring of mentally defective, inbred foreigners who’d been teeming onto our shores for decades, threatening to destroy, forever, something she called America’s ethnic homogeneity.”

Dr. Vogel’s speech highlights how systemic bias functions—interracial marriage is outlawed because of racism, but this law is presented as an objective moral truth. As a eugenicist, Dr. Vogel would like to see similar laws enacted against other marginalized populations. The inflammatory rhetoric in this quote emphasizes that eugenics is not actually scientific but is rooted in bias and fear.

“You know, dear, I’ve never wanted a husband. But now that I’m getting older, I regret not having a child. I’d love to have a daughter. A clever young thing like you. Everything’s changed at Berneston, there are so many more opportunities for the female students. I’d so love for you to be a part of that, my dear.”

Mary is often pulled between her gut feelings and Dr. Vogel’s explanations. Here, Dr. Vogel uses Mary’s desire for a maternal figure and her professional ambition to keep her on her side. This represents one potential path forward for Mary: If she sticks with Dr. Vogel, she can have a university education, though it would require continuing the oppression at Nettleton.

“That’s what Nettleton Village is—since we’re being honest, now, it’s not much better than a prison. Twenty years is a sentence one gets for grand larceny or murder, not for having sexual relations outside of marriage. We have rights in this country. Even us gals.”

This is the first time in the novel that Nettleton is explicitly called a prison. Bertie explains that the conditions of the institution are worse than a prison since the sentences are longer—most women are kept there until they are no longer fertile. She uses juxtaposition to highlight the absurdity of this punishment; men receive far less prison time for murder than the inmates at Nettleton do for having consensual sex.

“I felt him deep inside me, I felt him deep inside my heart, and I thought: the heart isn’t just an organ and the world isn’t just what we see and if love is more than just an idea, the same might be true for God and luck and angels too.”

Mary loses her virginity to Jake, and it is her first articulated act of power and agency. Her first time having consensual sex, she gains agency over her body and over herself. The imagery in this excerpt contrasts sharply with the ways Mary described her sexual abuse in earlier chapters—here, love and sex are divine.

“They’re not in great shape when they come out. They’re locked in small rooms with no furniture, but somehow they manage to break their own fingers and toes. A girl came out missing her front teeth…once.”

Here, Bertie comments on the conditions at Building Five. The nonchalant, graphic descriptions amplify the horrifying nature of the torture because it is normalized.

“I could have helped Lillian escape, as we planned, and still have gone on to Berneston University. It was unlikely my involvement with her escape would be discovered if I hadn’t stolen all the records for Jake. I could have gone on to become a lawyer or a doctor after Berneston.”

Mary chooses friendship and justice over her ambition. She gives up on her dreams to go to university and become a powerful woman like Dr. Vogel. Mary’s thoughts highlight the injustices of the choices that women, especially poor women, have to make. At the same time, this quote underscores the moral journey Mary has made; while she could still benefit from her time at Nettleton, she refuses to build a future on the exploitation of others.

“I hadn’t expected Lillian to be so weak. I practically carried her down stairs. She’d been in the detention building for only ten days. What had happened to her? And that smell. Now I knew why Bertie had told me to take Lillian to the morgue in the tunnels. There was running water and soap in the morgue. And nobody would look for us there.”

Lillian is described as especially strong in earlier chapters, which juxtaposes with her condition after her stay in Building Five. When Mary notices Lillian’s weakness, she recognizes her humanity more. Bertie’s knowledge that Lillian would need to wash up reiterates how commonplace the mistreatment in Building Five is.

“Mary, there’s a lady who’s been there almost a year. I heard she was normal when she went in there. Just mouthed off about something to the wrong attendant. She’s missing her front teeth now, has an arm that was broken and didn’t mend right, and now it’s useless. And she used to be normal. Now she’s insane. That matron, Olga, she strapped a girl’s arm above her head for a week. Miss Hartley knows everything that goes on in there, she has the water turned off for days at a time.”

Lillian’s story highlights the torture that women face in Building Five and how that violence makes their condition deteriorate. Her explicit descriptions here contrast with Bertie’s imprecise language earlier, when she also described a girl missing teeth. Bertie, as a staff member, can look away from the violence if she needs to. Lillian and the other inmates do not have that choice.

“Most of em were from nearby towns. Vogel and Hartley don’t take in local girls anymore, ‘cause in the past their folks would give us money to help get them back out. Cloris helped a few girls just ‘cause they weren’t looking like they’d last another winter. My mom used to be one of the field attendants. She’d help a girl if she looked like she couldn’t take the strain no more. But we usually knew somebody who knew their folks.”

Charlie surprises Mary, revealing that her earlier impression of him was based on stereotypes. Leary demonstrates that the institutionalization of girls was not supported by people who understood what was happening. Mary’s worldview is turned upside down when she realizes that the townspeople and staff are working to liberate the girls while she has been working to contain them.

“I thought about how safe I’d felt these past months at Nettleton Village. I’d never had so much confidence in myself and so much hope for my future. And I’d convinced myself, all along, that it was Lillian who was safer there.”

Mary recognizes that her justification for keeping Lillian at Nettleton is tied to her own safety and comfort. Like Dr. Vogel, she prioritized her goals and desires over the inmates’ well-being. However, Mary has grown as a character and refuses to continue doing so.

“She appeared to have full confidence in me, still, and I realized I’d never fully appreciated the enormity of Dr. Vogel’s arrogance. How could somebody like me pose any threat to Dr. Vogel? It was inconceivable to her; it wasn’t just that she was tipsy. She thought of me, not as a sort of daughter, but as a useful fool.”

This is Mary’s final epiphany and moment of disillusionment with Dr. Vogel. Mary loses her belief that Dr. Vogel could be a maternal figure for her and recognizes that Dr. Vogel sees people as instruments and means to an end. Additionally, Dr. Vogel has been able to exploit Mary because of her lower class position—Mary thought they were equals, but Dr. Vogel has the power.

“The limbs on the pines hung low, heavy with snow, just like a Christmas scene in a storybook. How frightening the woods had seemed when I’d first arrived last spring. What a timid, stupid thing I was then.”

The transformation of the forest in Mary’s mind symbolizes her maturity into adulthood. She leaves the romantic tropes of the Gothic novel and recognizes the complex reality she lives in and must contend with an as adult. She is no longer afraid of monsters, though she recognizes the real dangers in the world.

“‘What I’ve just witnessed—the condition in which we found the girls and women in one of the buildings, is something…Well, it’s something I’ll never forget.’ She paused so she could shoot a sidelong look at Dr. Vogel. ‘It’s something that makes me deeply ashamed. What I saw…is reminiscent of the dark ages.’”

Mrs. Howell’s commentary on the conditions of the girls in Building Five highlights the degree of abuse that they faced. It also illustrates that institutions often successfully hid their realities from the people who ran and supported them.

“Agnes wasn’t an uncommon name. We had several at the Village. I’d looked at the girls that morning, at last. Some were fair, some darker; some had wrinkles; others still had pimples. They had brown eyes, green, gray, blue. I thought of each face now and forgot about the cold that stabbed my wet toes with each step.”

Mary recognizes that Dr. Vogel could also be an inmate at Nettleton under different circumstances and that each girl has a life and a story. Mary and Dr. Vogel are only one misfortune from being one of the girls. She highlights the systematic injustice and lack of protection that women must live with. This quote also shows the variety of women kept there—of all races and ethnicities and all ages.