Analysis Of The Plastic Pink Flamingo

In “ The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History.” author Jennifer Price examines how the popularity of flamingos has shaped and influenced American culture today. Price’s purpose is to convey the idea that the American culture is very self-centered and ignorant. She adopts a scornful tone in order to appeal to similar feelings and experiences in her scholarly readers. Price uses rhetorical strategies including imagery, several alliterations, and irony to judge how Americans used flamingos to reveal prosperity.

Jennifer Price’s essay, “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History”, details the history of the plastic pink figure that could be seen in the yards of Americans in the mid 1900’s and can still be seen today. Through her use of irony and various rhetorical devices, she criticizes American decadence and materialism while also highlighting an inability to observe genuine beauty.

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

Scattered in lawns throughout the United States, the pink flamingo is an American icon. We all know, and probably don’t love them. But how do people who are living outside of the United States or who are new to life in the United States view them? Jennifer Price has just the answer. In her essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History”, Jennifer Price uses diction, cultural allusions, and organization to reveal her view of the American Population as superficial, materialistic, and trivial.

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.

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.

Jennifer Price’s essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History” introduces the origins of the famous lawn ornaments. Price’s purpose is to educate about the hypocrisy of American culture and how many live a life of extravagance and fortune without raising a finger. She adopts an informative tone in the first paragraph that shifts to a sarcastic tone in order to exemplify the state of insincerity of the American ways to the citizens of America.

She uses a very elegant word choice in statements like “the Flamingo, had made the bird synonymous with wealth and pizazz…” giving the audience a more in-depth look of just how much the Flamingos were viewed by Americans. Price the delivers “in 1956, right after he signed his first recording contract, Elvis presley bought a pink Cadillac. This detail enhances her credibility by showing the audience that she is very knowledgeable and an expert in her field. The irony comes into play when she mentions “ Americans had hunted flamingos to extinction in Florida in the late 1800s” which taints the reputation of America by creating the image that American society is greedy and irresponsible. She then builds upon this thought by comparing how we treat the Flamingos, and how other cultures treat them “always singled out the Flamingo as special. Early christians associated it with the red phoenix. In ancient Egypt, it symbolized the sun god

Once inside the store, Sylvia can no longer ignore the blinding imparity between the rich and the poor. Her discovery of an overly priced toy clown prompts her to consider what could be bought for its price: "Thirty-five dollars could buy new bunk beds for Junior and Gretchen’s boy. Thirty-five dollars and the whole household could go visit Granddaddy Nelson in the country. Thirty-five dollars would pay for the rent and the piano bill too" (605). Sylvia is forced to finally address the socioeconomic inequality that works against her while simultaneously conferring certain luxuries on the rich: "Who are these people that spend that much for performing clowns and $1000 for toy sailboats? What kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain’t in on it?" (605).

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.

Chris Van Allsburg grew up in a quiet suburban setting in Grand Rapids, Michigan. During the 1950’s, when he was a child, the town was a place that seemed like a haven for any young boy. There were open fields that provided places for the children to enjoy a baseball game in the spring. The houses were not separated by fences, but rather blended together by the yards. The setting in which he grew up provided

The next interesting item that the kids find is a very expensive paperweight. While discussing it, Miss Moore is sure to convey that while the object is very expensive, it’s purpose is very trivial. “”This here costs $480 dollars,” say Rosie Giraffe. So we pile up all over her to see what she pointing out. My eyes tell me it’s a chunk of glass cracked with something heavy, and different-color inks dripped into the splits,

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