The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History

The play also uses great language e.g. descriptive detail in the monologues, imagery e.g. “on four wobbly legs we walk down to the village”; this provides a visual image of the scene and the efforts of both Sheila and Bridie.

Walls uses specific words to bring her memories to the readers. A vivid example of this is in the second chapter of the book. “I stabbed one of the hot dogs with a fork and bent over and offered it to him. The weiner was hot, so Juju licked at it tentatively, but when I stood up and started stirring the hot dogs again, I felt a blaze of heat on my right side. I turned to see where it was coming from and realized that my dress was on fire. Frozen with fear, I watched the yellow-white flames make a ragged brown line up the pink fabric of my skirt and climb my stomach. Then the flames leaped up, reaching my face, (Walls 9). In this excerpt, Walls uses words such as ‘ragged’ and ‘leaped’ to create an image in your mind. In fact, when she talks about the heat climbing up her leg you can almost feel it. Walls uses figurative language to help add to the imagery of the story as well as add to the pathos because she could use a phrase that compares how hungry she was or how they were

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

Throughout the essay, the use of vernacular speech can be observed when looking at the dialogue between characters. For example, “Good day, Mrs. Henderson. Momma responded with “How you, Sister Flowers?”. In the dialogue between Mrs. Henderson and Mrs. Flowers, it can be seen that Flowers speaks respectively with sophistication while Mrs. Henderson speaks carelessly using an older southern tone. This results in a clear comparison between the characters in the essay which represent the importance of education and vocabulary. The constant use of the wrong verb by “Momma” bothers the author, giving us a better idea of language’s role in her life. In addition, the author foreshadows part of the lifeline, so we gain a better understanding of the story when the lifeline is presented later on.

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 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,

In Jennifer Price’s essay, “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History” (1999), she proclaims that the United States has embraced the pink flamingo and its history. The author utilizes benevolent diction, enlightening metaphor, and alluding allusion. Price’s purpose to get people to understand the beauty of the pink flamingo in order to show her view of how the flamingo changed the culture of the United States. The author writes in a admirable tone for her audience of American citizens.

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.

Like the Rubik Cube in the 80’s or smart phones of today’s generation something has caught the attention of citizens, even a plastic pink bird that took the 50’s by storm. In the essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History,” Jennifer Price uses multiple rhetorical devices to demonstrate how American culture has been influenced.

The contradiction made by those two words in the title suggests prices thoughts about how the American society made the pink flamingo a symbol of wealth. Price then

In Jennifer Price’s “The Plastic Pink Flamingos: A Natural History,”she gives a brief history about the pink flamingo and its iconic meaning in America’s pop culture. In addition to the meaning behind the pink flamingo, she connects her historical context to reveal her thoughts on American culture. In the text, Price utilizes historical allusions and extravagant diction and asks us to experience her frustration with today’s American society and asks us to consider her criticism towards America’s romanticization of materialistic things.

In the first paragraph, Price makes known the outline of her essay through the descriptive detailing of a pink flamingo: “it staked two major claims to boldness.” In the same paragraph, she states the first and foremost boldness:“it was a flamingo.” Then in the following sentences and statements she proceeds to elaborate the importance of why a flamingo? The flamingo had been a recurring symbol of luxury

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,

When I looked at John James Audubon painting of the American Flamingo, his painting describes the nature of the life of the flamingos and how their body moves around for them to go on with their nature. The aspects that Audubon caught while painting the American Flamingo, that in the background of the big rose-pink flamingo that takes up most the paint, there you see a flamingo standing differently than the other flamingos around that one. Also the different angles of how the flamingos move their neck around. When I look at the rose-pink flamingo’s legs I see how fragile they look, but Audubon might have wanted to paint the flamingo's legs to show how delicate they are. The painting does not give off the dark and gloomy nature of life but the life that was given to the flamingos.

Her diction is one of an educated adult, or at least a well-spoken college student. She uses strong imagery when describing her hometown. She goes into great detail in describing not only the look of the setting, but the mood as well. Her recollections of the past that directly involve the main story are short, but help build the world in which the story is being told. In paragraph eight Elizabeth says “I remember squatting in the road drawing a picture in the dust, a picture which Joey gleefully erased with one sweep of his dirty foot. I remember fishing for minnows in a muddy creek and watching sadly as they eluded my cupped hands, while Joey laughed uproariously” as she remembers the past. This is more than painting a picture for the audience. She uses physical descriptions as well as conveying the setting through memories. You can almost feel her nostalgia for her younger innocent days through the words. The memories described here are short, but give us examples of joy in her youth. Juxtaposed to her other tellings of her childhood which seem mostly