‘Orange Is the New Black’ is an American comedy-drama series streaming on Netflix. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir about her experiences in a minimum-security federal prison. It covers themes such as racism, sexism, and the monetization of human beings. The Black Lives Matter movement is also an extremely important theme of the finale of Season 4, alongside police brutality. The series is about a woman, Piper Chapman, who must go to prison for the crime of smuggling drug money ten years prior. She later finds out her ex-girlfriend (who was part of the drug cartel) was the one who gave her name up. Chapman, along with the other inmates, attempts to grapple with the prison's numerous, inherent struggles. Episodes often feature flashbacks of significant events from various inmates' and prison guards' pasts. These flashbacks typically depict how an inmate came to be in prison or develop a character's backstory. This essay will examine the cultural and linguistic content of the series. It will also look at cultural assumptions made by writers or audiences, as well as possible different readings people may have. It will also focus on certain social factors, particularly race, and gender.
The overall plot is based on Piper's character, a stereotypical upper-middle-class white woman who adapts to prison conditions. However, each episode also reflects on the lives of one of the diverse women living in the prison along with her, addressing a variety of sociological issues, including race, class, gender, sexuality, power dynamics, mental health, and the structure of civic systems. An important social factor we see outlined is racism. In Season 4, we see the character Poussey Washington’s death. They took the topics of racism police brutality and racial discrimination to the center stage. But what surprises the audience the most was that the guard who killed her is portrayed as maybe the only innocent and not racist guard, which is why her death is even more surprising because the audience did not expect it. The authors have decided to conduct it this way, to make her death even more conflicting. Therefore, this creates a huge emotional reaction from the audience. Social class is another important social factor that is outlined across the seasons. When we see flashbacks of certain characters, the audience can differentiate the different characters’ upbringings and how they have come from different social classes yet still end up in the same place.
An oppositional reading would be that it expects you to feel sorry for prisoners, even though it is their actions that brought them to this outcome. Someone with this view on the series may also comment on the graphic nature of certain scenes featuring love interests. My response to this was to question how we continue to hold women to a different set of standards regarding themes of the body, sexual desire, promiscuity, and violence than men in similar positions. A negotiated reading perhaps might be you feel sorry for them and understand they are going through a difficult time being in prison, but still believe that it is their fault they are there in the first place. A dominant reading would be that it is a series that provides huge insight into the struggles of prison life, such as gangs and trying to make friends, as well as the impact going to prison has on their life as well as their families. It is a huge eye-opener about the real world and how inmates, especially woman inmates, are treated in the hands of mainly male guards and this sense of power they have over a woman. I think the show also does a really good job at executing all these important themes that we can relate to real-world sexism, racism, etc.
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The writers appeal to the audience’s pathos and allow the audience to really sympathize with the characters. While the initial grief over leaving her fiancée, family, and friends was compelling, it could not compete with the raw emotion that can only be the result of grouping hundreds of women. One of the most heart-wrenching moments was Children's Day, the only day of the year children of the inmates were allowed beyond the visitation room to spend the day with their mothers. It provokes emotion in the audience because it allows you to understand how sad it is that these women are cut off from the outside world and how they rarely get to see their families.
There are some examples of literary and rhetorical devices in the show’s theme song called ‘You’ve Got Time’ by Regina Spektor. The song refers to being stuck in the same place in life and feeling trapped, meaning you have bags of time to think about where you could be or what you could be doing with your life as everyone around you keeps moving on with their life while you are stuck. There is the use of amplification and repetition throughout the song when the lyrics say “You’ve got time, you’ve got time”, this creates emphasis as to how much time you have when you are in prison. These terms are presented again when it says “The animals, the animals”, the animal representing the inmates. “Trapp trapp trapp ’till the cage is full”, they are stuck in the same place and position. The song makes the audience empathize with the prisoners, and I think it is a really fitting song choice. “Remember all their faces remember all their voices” creates imagery and allows the audience to picture how life might be for prisoners could provoke emotion maybe. Allows them to visualize how many people they meet during their time in prison.
In summary, ‘Orange Is the New Black’ is a series that tries to shed light on real issues currently going on while trying to take a comedic spin on it. It is a real eye-opener to the way those in the prison system are treated. It is an incredibly moving series due to it allowing the audience to relate it to their own lives and experiences with sexism or racism. It is really moving to me as it allows me to be reminded of the awful experiences people go through in real life.
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