Analysis Of Pink Plastic Flamingo

Price juxtaposes the American view of the flamingo with other culture’s views of the majestic birds. She says Americans exploited the flamingo, “reproducing it, brightening it, and sending it.” She compares these actions with the reverence other cultures have for the flamingo and determines that Americans tend to pervert and exploit beauty for profit, rather than preserve the original

The author uses tone and images throughout to compare and contrast the concepts of “black wealth” and a “hard life”. The author combines the use of images with blunt word combinations to make her point; for example, “you always remember things like living in Woodlawn with no inside toilet”. This image evokes the warmth of remembering a special community with the negative, have to use outdoor facilities. Another example of this combination of tone and imagery is “how good the water felt when you got your bath from one of those big tubs that folk in Chicago barbecue in”. Again the author’s positive memory is of feeling fresh after her bath combined with a negative, the fact that it was a barbecue drum.

“There was the honest cock robin, the favorite game of the stripling sportsmen, with its loud querulous note; and the twittering blackbirds flying in the sable clouds; and the golden-winged woodpecker with his crimson crest, his broad black gorget, and splendid plumage; and the cedar bird, with its red-tipt wings and yellow-tipt tail and its little monteiro cap of feathers; and the blue jay, that noisy coxcomb, in his gay light blue coat and white underclothes, screaming and chattering, nodding and bobbing and bowing, and pretending to be on good terms with every songster of the grove” (11). The very vivid descriptions of the birds, people, and nature gave a more creeped out feeling than

Price's use of similes/metaphors reveal her views on American culture. For instance, at the end of her essay, Price compares the plastic flamingo to a real flamingo. However, instead of describing the real flamingo as wading across a sea of water, she describes it as “wading across an inland sea of grass.” (line 61) This shows Americans clouding up the image of a real flamingo in order to suit their own interests. Instead of having flamingos in water like they are meant to be, they make fake flamingos to display on lawns in order to exhibit “leisure and extravagance.” (line 19) Another example would be when Price describes many flamingo based buildings such as motels, restaurants, and lounges that sprang up all across the country in the 1950s. (line 26) She compares these flamingo based buildings to “semiotic sprouts” (line 28) that just shout out “flamingo” in order to take advantage of the flamingo trend. These buildings using the “namesake Flamingo” (line 27) adopted this new trend and threw out the old in order to “stand out” (line 25) and draw in “riches.” (line 22) Thus, this shows the adaption of the new trend, no matter how much it had deviated from the norm, in order

Price begins her essay by explaining the flamingo’s rapid appearance in United States culture and the connotations behind the bird while using diction and cultural allusions to characterize United States culture as trivial, superficial and materialistic. Price uses a low level of diction in paragraph one through words like “pizzaz” and playful”. Her informal diction demonstrates her view that United States culture holds trivial things, like flamingo’s, with too much importance. Price continues on to describe the superficial value of the bird. The plastic flamingo is “inscribed...emphatically” across United States lawns, its owners hoping to attach themselves to ideas of wealth. Those who place flamingo’s in their lawn are looking to benefit from the wealthy face value of the bird, they do not wish to suffer any detriment from the less known irony surrounding the flamingos' extinction. It is only right that this flamingo revolution would be centered in Las Vegas - “the flamboyant oasis filled with instant riches…” Las Vegas is a city built on money and expensive material things, the same foundation the ever important flamingo is built on.

“I like the frankness of the word scavenging, which I can hardly think of without picturing a big black snail on an aquarium wall” (Eighner 712). Eighner uses this quote to create a sense of imagery for his audience by comparing himself to a big black snail scavenging for food as dumpster divers do. As a matter of fact, Eighner commented that he liked the frankness of the word “scavenging”, showing that he prefers a more specific term rather than the clichéd term of “dumpster diving”. Eighner continues to imply that society takes valuable items for granted by relating himself to his audience. “Once I was the sort of person who invests objects with sentimental value.

In the poem “America,” by Tony Hoagland, the idea of Americans being consumed with their money is shown using symbolism and metaphors. The speaker in this poem is a teacher whose name is never mentioned. One thing revealed in the poem is that the speaker has a father who is presumably very wealthy and successful. One of the teacher’s students compares America to a maximum security prison. A recurring theme throughout “America” is Hoagland showing examples of America’s greedy society using a teacher, student, and a father’s experiences. Using metaphors of money and symbols of rivers filled with merchandise, Tony Hoagland captures how the teacher begins to think after he hears his student compare America to a maximum security prison.

McDonald's, Hollywood, football, Coca-Cola, Disney-all are iconic symbols of American culture. Author, Sarah Vowell, incorporates these iconic symbols throughout her work while also defining and analyzing the American identity. She does this through her book, Take The Cannoli, using language, humor, and history.

In the essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History” by Jennifer price; the author shows implicitly her idea and point of view on the topic on the United States culture. The idea is that the U.S.A‘s culture is very overbearing, this is shown by her view on how Americans are so worried with their image that is seen by society. Price uses many writing techniques to express her view on United States culture, by the usage of diction, tone, and symbolism Price is able to convey her analysis on the greed and the corruption occurring in the American culture.

Price’s essay shifts from stating the artistic appeal of plastic flamingos in the 1950s to acknowledging that many American trends are hypocritical. She appeals to logos by stating how flamingos had gone extinct in Florida due to hunters killing them for plumes and meat. She presents this in order

Jennifer Price uses diction to characterize American Culture as materialistic and thoughtless in her first and second paragraphs. To add color to her first paragraph, Price uses a variety of words including “splashed”, “boldness”, “flocking”, “pizzaz” and “playful”. This word choice characterizes the flamingos, and through comparison, American society as valuing glamour and consequently, wealth. In describing the new plastic flamingos Price even goes as far as to describe flamingos as “synonymous with wealth”, and the middle class as “eager” to enjoy the flamingo culture, associated with wealth. She aids her characterization by calling the flamingos “souvenirs”, pointless chotskies that a person brings home to show off and display their wealth. She contrasts this with the irony that flamingos in America had already gone extinct by the nineteenth century. While describing this extinction,

It is known in our generation and those past to have trends, rituals, and ideals which have been passed on over the years. Many still exist nowadays with simple meaning in our everyday lives yet we are not familiar with their origins. The well-know modernized pink flamingo had its own roots of popularity around the world that many are not familiar with. Therefore the question is how did the flamingo get its claim to fame. Jennifer Price provides a great explanation as she recalls and summarizes the past history of the origin of the pink flamingo. Price analyzes the rising popularity of the flamingo and she portrays her view on U.S. culture as being glamorous and trendy through symbolism, numerous listing, and implementing a motif corresponding to the color pink.

Ted Steinberg’s book American Green gives a detailed description of lawn and its role in America. He gives a history of lawn starting from the origin of the word “lawn” itself in the 16th century and gives wide-ranging anecdotes throughout the book that attempt to show the reader how obsessed Americans are with their lawns. His anecdotes are often meant to represent people all over America, but when you take a step back you realize that they are actually rare stories that provide little broader meaning. Steinberg fails to prove that American’s are obsessed with their lawns because of the poor assumptions he makes and examples he uses.

Throughout “Consider the Lobster”, an article written by David Foster Wallace about the 2004 Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace demonstrates that not all of his writing is clear and concise. The author does this through his various viewpoints in the article, which allow him to capture the reader 's attention. A particular sentence that captures the initiation of Wallace’s writing is, “The suppers come in styrofoam trays, and the soft drinks are iceless and flat, and the coffee is convenience-store coffee in more styrofoam, and the utensils are plastic (there are none of the special long skinny forks for pushing out the tail meat.)” (Pg. 239). Within this sentence, Wallace describes the many parts of the festival and how they show the poor side of the festival. Between the cheap styrofoam trays and the flat drinks, the festival gives off a poor vibe to the reader.

Price utilizes the word “splashed” in her first paragraph, which adds a passionate feeling into her idea of the influence of flamingos on United States society. This line also functions as a pun, since flamingos mostly wade in water. The use of the word splashed is appealing to older and educated audiences, as they would understand that this is a pun. Other times that Price uses exaggerated diction is when she uses “leisure” and “extravagance.” By using these words, Price is expressing her belief that the United States culture is fake.