48 pages • 1 hour read
Piper KermanOrange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Books
Books play a key role for Kerman throughout the memoir. Not only do they allow her to pass time in prison, but she also finds her identity through them. Kerman, unlike many of the women she meets in prison, has a formal education and a college degree. When she receives a steady stream of books from family and friends during mail call, it reveals to the other inmates that she’s “different, a freak” (62). While many of the other inmates watch TV or participate in drama to pass the time, Kerman constantly loses herself in her books. While this act sets Kerman apart from many of the other inmates, it also attracts the few other likeminded women in the prison who are thankful to her for allowing them to borrow from her enormous and ever-evolving collection. While the books ostracize her from many inmates, they are also the inciting factor for many of her friendships.
Kerman’s books are also “evidence that people on the outside cared about [her]” (62). Many women in the prison don’t receive anything during mail call, which demonstrates their lack of support outside the prison walls. Kerman, on the other hand, regularly receives books, letters, and/or art. This again separates her from many of the other inmates, but it also makes her realize just how good she has it. Even though she’s serving time in prison and separated from the people she loves, she will reunite with them after her short sentence. For many of the other women, no matter the length of their sentence.
On a larger scale, books are also representative of the lack of care on the part of the prison system for rehabilitating the inmates. When Kerman first wants a job, she considers working as an aid in the GED program. However, a “virulent toxic killer mold” (88) ruined the room and textbooks, so officials shut down the program. The prison’s lack of care for the education room, combined with the scant prison library, shows that the prison serves as more of a holding pen for wrongdoers rather than a space that teaches the necessary skills to succeed once outside of prison.
Drugs
Drugs are symbolic of both adventure and destruction. While drug offenses are what landed many of the women in Danbury, Kerman’s experience is different from the other inmates’. Kerman comes from a well-educated, supportive family. However, when she graduates college, she views Nora’s life as an exciting adventure that feeds into her desire for a thrill—and it just so happens that drug trafficking is what fuels Nora’s lifestyle. Although Kerman never uses the drugs and isn’t with Nora for drug money, she seeks adventure, and drug money happens to be a fundamental part of that experience. In the beginning of the memoir, Kerman views drugs as symbolic of the counterculture adventure that she wanted.
Ultimately, Kerman’s involvement with Nora’s drug trafficking is what puts her in prison. While incarcerated, she realizes the heavy toll that drugs have taken on not just her but also on many of the other inmates. Whereas drugs used to symbolize adventure, they now represent the shattered lives of the women that she calls friends. This is especially true of Allie B., Kerman’s friend who is addicted to narcotics and heroin. When Kerman sees how drugs have ruined Allie B.’s as well as other inmates’ lives, she realizes the gravity of her actions: “[M]y choices made me complicit in their suffering. I was an accomplice to their addiction” (180).
Food
Food is symbolic of many things in prison, both good and bad. The terrible food variety in the prison cafeteria represents the lack of healthy choices available to the inmates. The salad bar is scantily stocked, and most meals consist of various forms of starch. However, the homemade meals that the women make from stashed cafeteria food represent friendship and community. On special occasions, such as birthdays, holidays, or movie nights, the women take cafeteria food items and turn them into elaborate dishes that they share amongst each other. The dishes reflect the culture (Spanish, Italian, Russian, etc.) of the woman preparing it; the women offer meals they would have made at home, sharing a piece of themselves and their history with each other. Other times, the dishes, such as cheesecake and root beer floats, are lighthearted attempts to find enjoyment in an otherwise discouraging environment.
