Précis

     Our Project Two is designed to be all about creativity and how we can use our analysis of a text and present it to a reader in a creative way. Writers do this all the time when creating books, movies, TV series, songs, and anything else that requires an audience. You have to be creative in order to reach people. For Project Two, we were told to pick a piece of work to analyze. Some students used books, others chose movies or video games. The style of the writing could be whatever we wanted. I chose the popular TV series Orange Is The New Black because it tied in with my topic for Project One.

          Orange Is The New Black (OITNB) was based off of the memoir by Piper Kerman and Jenji Kohan created the television adaptation.  Kerman wrote her memoir about the experiences she had in a women’s prison after being convicted with money-laundering charges that resulted from helping her love interest in a drug operation. OTINB revolves around the main character, Piper Chapman, and her experience in a women’s prison. The series follows Piper as she makes friends and enemies within the prison and learns how to survive in a completely different lifestyle. Viewers are also provided backstories on some of the supporting characters that give the audience a look at what the character's lives were like before prison and what they did to get there. The show brings up real world issues such as sexual harassment, corruption, funding cuts, overcrowding, and prisoner’s general well-being.

     The idea of the writer including backstories for each of the characters and taking us on a journey through their lives really reminded me of this idea of a "butterfly effect". The butterfly effect is the theory that the smallest actions you do within your life, can have extreme consequences. When watches the backstories of the characters in OITNB, you can see some of them made such simple and small mistakes or choices that led them to be in the correctional facility. I decided for my Project Two that I really wanted to connect the ideas of the butterfly effect with the lives of convicted criminals and see how the two interact with one another. To do this, I decided I would take a few characters from OITNB who have extensive backstories provided, and write them alternate endings. Would the choices they make result with them still ending up in the prison? Or would it lead them to a completely different lifestyle altogether? My Project Two will consist of two writing portions, one with my creative alternate endings for the characters, and another with my analysis on the butterfly effect and how I think it is incorporated with the choices we make.