Unraveling Self-Reflection: Piper Kerman's Prison Memoir

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“And then I was running, as fast as I could. No one could stop me.” The last words of Piper Kerman’s memoir, Orange Is the New Black, are that of a tear jerker for anyone that has read all two hundred and ninety-five pages. The well organized and well thought out memoir describes her thirteen-month sentence in the federal prison system for a ten-year-old drug charge. Kerman’s memoir is filled with lessons for not only the reader but lessons for herself, as she finds out more about herself than she ever has while behind bars. Kerman’s memoir is organized in a way that the reader falls in love with characters, that even under false names feel like family. The memoir is also organized in a way that at the end everything comes full circle. All the lessons and teachings come together, and the main idea of the book is shown. Therefore, the way Kerman organized and structured her memoir was for the readers to fully understand the lessons that she herself learned. One organizational technique that Kerman uses throughout the entirety of Orange Is the New Black is giving all of the chapter unique titles. The titles of each chapter tie into the story being told by either a small detail or the general idea of the chapter. These titles let the reader know what the chapter is about and entice the reader to keep reading to find out how the title is connected. …show more content…

Kerman makes the structural and organizational choices that she does to try and convey her message clearly. By uniquely structuring it to be more character based, not only the fellow prisoners’ characters, but also her own character, it is more impactful for the reader. The main message leaves the reader changed, just like it like Kerman. Therefore, if Orange Is the New Black had not been organized the way it was, Kerman’s main goal would have not been

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