Orange Is the New Black Essay

During my time reading the book “Orange is the New Black” by Piper Kerman, I learned quite a few new things and gained a new perspective on prison itself. Piper Kerman was a young woman who got caught and arrested for drug smuggling and money laundering. This was something she had done years earlier though, in her crazy youth phase. Piper was a changed woman when she was taken to court and sentenced to 15 months in prison. But she had committed the crime and she had to do her time. This book tells her story of her stay in a women’s prison.

This writing was meant to entertain but also to inform. There are a few messages you can get out of reading it. Before reading this book, I thought of prisoners in a mostly negative way as most people do. But some of the friendships, relationships, and bonds that Piper describes in it are stronger than ever. They celebrate holidays, birthdays, etc. Everyone has each other's back. Piper makes a friend named Janet, and when she is released it is really sad for both of them. She intends to keep in touch with many of the prisoners after her release as well. Another thing I gained from this writing is the role race plays in life. Race has always seem to have been an issue in everyday life, and prison is not any different. “When a new person arrived, their tribe—white, black, Latino, or the few and far between "others"—would immediately make note of their situation, get them settled, and steer them through their arrival.” This quote is from the book and shows how even in prison there are still cliques based on color. But although there was a little tension between races here and there, everybody got along for the most part. The last thing that I gained, and what I think the author tried to inform her readers on, was how much drugs can affect/ruin your life. Piper was not even a drug addict or a drug dealer. She simply retrieved money for her drug dealing girlfriend one time, and that