Angela Birckbichler
Brianne Howard
Writing 111
Essay #4 Orange is the New Black shows the lives of inmates at Litchfield Penitentiary through Piper Chapman’s eyes. Piper Chapman is a white woman in her early thirties who is imprisoned in Litchfield Penitentiary for a crime committed ten years prior with her ex-girlfriend, Alex Vause. Vause and Chapman were traveling the world together when Vause was working under a man named Kubra Balik who ran an international drug cartel. Within the show, Chapman seems to defy the stereotype of the typical woman seen in prison; she’s white and comes from an upper-middle class family. Chapman and other inmates in Litchfield defy stereotypes regarding women of different races and shows that race can be put …show more content…
The five bunking units in Litchfield are separated by race. For example, three of the five bunking units that are commonly seen in the series are Cell Block A, Cell Block B and Cell Block C, or The Suburbs, The Ghetto, and Spanish Harlem. In order to follow the societal norms of the prison, Piper should have been assigned to live in The Suburbs. However, in season 1, episode 13, Piper is bunked with Taystee, a black inmate in The Ghetto. This is because Piper’s counselor, Sam Healy, has such a strong hate for lesbian women that he would not assign Piper to The Suburbs where her ex-girlfriend was assigned, in fear that she would engage in lesbian …show more content…
For example, in season 1, episode 11, Trisha, a white inmate that was primarily seen engaging with other white inmates, died from a drug overdose. In this episode, black and Latina women come together and deliver food and prison alcohol to the white women who were closest to Trisha. The complexity of relationships between races who generally remain separated in prison is shown whenever women from different races showed their sympathy by stating that they never really knew Trisha, or that they have spoken to her once, but that they were really sorry about her passing. This scene is important because it shows that while there are unfair negative emotions between different races, these women are able to come together in a time of
Brianne Howard
Writing 111
Essay #4 Orange is the New Black shows the lives of inmates at Litchfield Penitentiary through Piper Chapman’s eyes. Piper Chapman is a white woman in her early thirties who is imprisoned in Litchfield Penitentiary for a crime committed ten years prior with her ex-girlfriend, Alex Vause. Vause and Chapman were traveling the world together when Vause was working under a man named Kubra Balik who ran an international drug cartel. Within the show, Chapman seems to defy the stereotype of the typical woman seen in prison; she’s white and comes from an upper-middle class family. Chapman and other inmates in Litchfield defy stereotypes regarding women of different races and shows that race can be put …show more content…
The five bunking units in Litchfield are separated by race. For example, three of the five bunking units that are commonly seen in the series are Cell Block A, Cell Block B and Cell Block C, or The Suburbs, The Ghetto, and Spanish Harlem. In order to follow the societal norms of the prison, Piper should have been assigned to live in The Suburbs. However, in season 1, episode 13, Piper is bunked with Taystee, a black inmate in The Ghetto. This is because Piper’s counselor, Sam Healy, has such a strong hate for lesbian women that he would not assign Piper to The Suburbs where her ex-girlfriend was assigned, in fear that she would engage in lesbian …show more content…
For example, in season 1, episode 11, Trisha, a white inmate that was primarily seen engaging with other white inmates, died from a drug overdose. In this episode, black and Latina women come together and deliver food and prison alcohol to the white women who were closest to Trisha. The complexity of relationships between races who generally remain separated in prison is shown whenever women from different races showed their sympathy by stating that they never really knew Trisha, or that they have spoken to her once, but that they were really sorry about her passing. This scene is important because it shows that while there are unfair negative emotions between different races, these women are able to come together in a time of