Summary Of The Plastic Pink Flamingo A Natural History

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.

A worn path is a story about a woman named Phoenix Jackson who needs to go a journey to town to get medicine for her sick grandson. It is a trip she has made before many times before (hence the title A worn Path) but there is something special about this trip, something different. In this paper I plan to dwell into the symbolism behind the Legend of the Phoenix and its relationship to her journey in the story. The legend of the Phoenix is about a fabled sacred bird of ancient Egyptians, said to come out of Arabia every 500 years to Heliopolis, where it burned itself on altar and rose again from its ashes young and beautiful; symbol of immortality. I think this story also represents Christian beliefs because the setting is

“The free bird thinks of another breeze….a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams…” The two literary works “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” can be seen as mockingbirds that have flown over fields of prejudice and repeat what they have seen for all to hear. Jem Finch, a young boy and lawyer’s son from “To Kill a Mockingbird” clearly symbolizes a mockingbird because of his youth and innocence, and because of his innocence he cannot fully understand the racism in the story. Jem also has many similarities to the caged and free birds in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, whether it be Jem’s

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

Just examining the title the reader already understands that the author is going to be using an ironic and sarcastic tone in her writing; “The Plastic Pink Flamingo : A Natural History.” The flamingo is plastic while “natural” may implied that is naturally made, while a plastic flamingo is actually man made. The reader gets another taste of her sarcastic tone with the first two sentences of the essay; “first, it was a flamingo”. As if the italics weren’t enough to notice her sarcastic tone on making such an obvious comment, as if a pink flamingo could be anything but a flamingo. It is quite evident that price did this on purpose she wanted to be sarcastic to show her point on how a simple thing as a flamingo can become the symbol of wealth in the eyes of Americans. The author continues with using more irony in her work by actually saying that something Americans did was ironic. “This was a little ironic, since Americans had hunted flamingos to extinction in Florida…” what price is saying is that once Americans wanted flamingos for their meat, fast-forward a hundred years now the flamingo is almost being worship by the way it is use all across the nation “In the 1950s, namesake Flamingo motels, restaurants, and lounges cropped up across the country…”.The authors finds it ironic how Americans change their ideas about something that was once meaningless into something that everyone must have as soon as it is “cool” enough. This shows how price thinks that the American culture norm is to follow what everyone is doing or what everyone is buying even if it was just once meat.

Before the quote, Esteban had asked Taylor if the symbol of the US was an alligator, bearing in mind a lot of people wore it on their clothes. Kingsolver used this as a reference to covetousness, because this book was written in the 1980s, which was when expensive Izod shirts that had the crocodile logo were remarkably trendy. However, Estevan alleged that Guatemalan Indians had a symbol of a bird that dies in the confinement

Deep in the forest of Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the caged bird sings on. The singing slaves in Douglass’s narrative are the caged birds of Maya Angelou’s famous poem, filling the air around them with desire: desire for a freedom so far out of reach—for “things unknown but longed for still.”

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.

This essay is a comparison between the short story, “The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier, published in 1952, and the 1963 film, The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. The story, in brief, was about a man named Nat, and his family. They lived on a farm and had to protect themselves in their house when the bird population spontaneously attacks. Although du Maurier’s story and Hitchcock’s film portray the same major conflict and theme, the other major story elements are very different.

Birds are a common sight in most places people tend to be. These winged creatures are seen in bustling places like the pigeons that are in urban and suburban areas, the woodpeckers in rural regions, the crows on farms, and even in cages within buildings. In fact, these elegant creatures are so common a sight in society that they are often overlooked and underappreciated. This is similar to how women were and sometimes still are treated within society; they are given little appreciation when they are present and doing as they are told, but when they do not do as they are told they become a problem. This parallel that can be drawn between women and birds is used throughout Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, in which its main character Edna Pontellier is often likened to and symbolized by a bird. Throughout the novel, the bird acts as a theme and symbol of both Edna and women in general.

In an excerpt from the essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History,” author Jennifer Price critically examines the role of the brightly colored flamingo in the 1950’s. Following the worst financial flux ever to occur within the United States, the 1950’s marked a massive shift in societal desires in America. Unlike ever before, manufacturers began to produce goods of varying high-contrast colors, rather than the uninspired period just a decade prior. Hues of tangerine, magenta, ruby and pink sprung onto the shelves of stores across the country, replacing the dull products that had been manufactured since the industrial revolution. Additionally, Americans began to flock to travel destinations such as Florida and Las Vegas, which both utilized the flashy pink flamingo and its image. As author Jennifer Price mockingly details, the flamingo became a symbol of opulence, leading to an era of blissful

Jennifer Price in the essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History” explains her point of view of the American Culture. Price supports her explanation by providing examples and explaining the history of the American Culture and the flamingos. The author’s purpose is to point out the greed in order to further explain her opinion on the American Culture. Price entertains her audience by mocking the American Culture by using symbolism, ethos, and tone in her essay.

Established magazine writer Jennifer Price’s essay, “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History”, argues that America’s culture is excessively concerned with material items, and much less concerned with individuality. Price addresses her opinion of American culture through syntax, diction, and tone. Price conveys her opinion of American culture through her use of syntax. In the second paragraph, Price discusses America’s past according to flamingos, crafting her sentence using exceptional syntax to reveal her true feelings towards the United States.

In Jennifer Price's essay, “The Pink Plastic Flamingo: A Natural History,” the reader is presented with a brief lesson on the pink flamingo. Rather than focusing on this point, however, Price presents her opinion on American culture: shallow and hypocritical. These points are presented through Price's tone, use of examples, and careful diction. The tone of the document is entirely sarcastic and exasperated using rhetorical questions such as, “Why, after all, call the birds 'pink flamingos'- as if they could be blue or green?” Price points out her annoyance with the title of the product itself, bringing a negative tone to the argument.

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.