The Plastic Pink Flamingo A Natural History Summary

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

Brian Doyle is a writer that composed an analysis essay on the story Joyas Voladoras. Doyle was born in 1956, and is the editor for Portland Magazine at the the University of Portland, which is located in Portland, Oregon. A numerous amount of Brian Doyle’s essays have made appearances at the Best American Essays series. Doyle’s essays gained more exposure by being showcased at the American Scholar, Harper's Orion, Atlantic Monthly, Commonweal, and the Georgia Review. In Joyas Voladoras, Doyle shows the elegance and character in his style of writing as he gets deeper and explores the hummingbird. Almost as if it is a riddle, or an enigma. Others say he expands beyond the meaning of life, he mentions metaphors about hearts, humans, blue whales, other animals, and of course, the humming bird. Basically, Doyle informs his audience through metaphors about hearts, life, pain, love and multiple living things, but he also gives us facts about hummingbirds, as if he was praising them, like if he was giving them the love and appreciation that they don’t see to get. This is could have been done to get a message across, but not just a simple message, something with a deeper meaning, that i myself or anyone cannot exactly pinpoint. One is left to just wonder and assume,  make what they can out of it through trying to understand what Doyle was getting at or to comprehend by making it personal.

Citizens throughout American history have often presented the “home of the free” and the “land of the brave” as the perfect nation, filled with perfect families, and more extreme examples of how impeccable the nation truly is. No time presented the United States of America in a more splendid light than the 1950’s. The 1950’s are remembered as a decade of prosperity but as with every time period, multiple historical issues marred this time. The United States encountered political, diplomatic, and social issues throughout this decade (Hewitt and Lawson, 832). Hairspray, the 1988 film by John Waters, was set in the 1950’s and reveals depths of racism and stereotypes during this period, while presenting smaller examples of the issues of sexism, religion, and inequality.

Price's word choice emphasizes her feelings toward American culture. For example, Price's nonchalant use of the phrase, "But no matter," (line 15) after describing how Americans had hunted the flamingos in Florida to extinction in the 1800s, sarcastically mocks the aloof attitude of the

In her last paragraph, she identifies herself as the upperclassman, stating that we rich people “. . . save our money, eschew status symbols, cut coupons, practice puritanical sacrifice to amass a million dollars” (Cottom 1015). This could be classified as a simple jest, to be honest. To me, it sounds sarcastic, which is probably what the author intended. Her argument is informative, yet entertaining. Mocking the snobbish attitude of some who believe they are superior, she skillfully disguises her sentence to appear innocent while the message it delivers is not quite. The point of this sentence is for you to realize

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.

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

But that was normal for this time of day. I was still listening to one of the stations when the saleswomen came up behind me. ‘You go’n buy that?’ I looked around at the short, stout, powdered-faced white women. ‘Do you have one in a box?’ ‘That one’s brand-new,’ she said. ‘It’s a present,’ I said. ‘I would like one in a box.’ ‘I can put this one in a box,’ she said. ‘No, ma’am, I want a brand-new one,’ I said” (175).

This speaks on a very deep level, in regards to the genuine warmth the author implied toward the mother in his piece. There is a subliminal truth of sentimental “value”, because the reality of this world is that all material wealth can be lost in a moment, but real wealth is not some slice of pie one luckily stumbles upon in the world, real wealth is first found in the human being, and the human becomes the reflective producer of these

Asking the rhetorical question “why, after all, call the birds ‘pink flamingos’ - as if they could be blue or green,” Mrs. Price hints at how materialistically focused the United States population has become. See, the American way is to simply “reproduc[ing] it, brighten[ing] it, and send[ing] it.” This creates a society in which an importance is placed upon material goods, rather than being grateful for the real thing. Continuing her tirade against the acquisitive nature of the United States population, Mrs. Price states just how non-topically important the bird was within other civilizations. “Early Christians associated it with the red phoenix…In ancient Egypt, it symbolized the sun god Ra…” Utilizing these examples, Mrs. Price suggests the simple fact that while Americans sought the pink flamingo to appear wealthy, other societies chose to worship the bird in its natural

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).

Children’s child play has become a form of an unrealistic world. Although, it is considered for children to begin creating a creative imagination, the mind fascinates children into toys. Some child’s play toys are not ideal for young children, like the one and only “Barbie”. Barbie has become a worldwide toy product for children all over the world, from the North Pole to the South Pole. These dolls have emerged from one ethnicity to another. In Ann DuCille, “Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Differences” the author talks about the race and gender differences; found in Barbie. She argues; “Is Barbie bad?” her response, was “Barbie is just a piece of plastic” (459). In contrast, this piece of plastic is not just a piece of plastic to young girls; it is much more than that. A piece of plastic that little girls all over the world wish they could be. Even though, it is only a piece of plastic to adults that Barbie significantly means nothing to them. Growing up, I owned a couple of Barbie dolls. The tall, long blond hair, blue-eyed doll was my best friend and my “role model”. I wanted to become exactly like Barbie. As a child, I thought only beautiful people who looked liked Barbie signified beauty. To my little to no knowledge, I soon came to find out no one really looks like Barbie, except people who want to become like Barbie. In my adolescent years, no one taught me Barbie was “unreal”; no one taught me it was just a figure in my imagination.

A lot can happen in sixty years, and America is no exception to that statement. It is arguable that one of the biggest differences regarding America in the 1950s to modern America is culture. The movie “Pleasantville” reflects much of these cultural differences from 1950s to today in a creative and thoughtful way. It also provides much useful insight into the cultural conflicts America faced throughout the 1950s. The many differences between 1950s culture and modern day culture, my own opinion which time period I would personally choose to live in and cultural conflicts of the 1950s will be discussed throughout this essay.

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,

“Money, Money Everywhere”, taken on March 10, 1960 in California, United States. The theme represented in the photograph is “Emerald Elegance”, chosen by the members of the Valley Panhellenic, for their Tuesday fashion show benefit scheduled at Sportsmen's Lodge. The black and white image indicates a certain era, to which the image belongs to, providing us with insight into life in 1960s. The photograph displays women, wearing green outfits whilst tying money on table centerpieces for St. Patrick's Day; from left, Mmes. William L. Davis III, Raymond Prichnow Jr. and Malvin A. Walden.