Culture is a major component when defining a nation. Many who claim to a culture are proud of it, and take heavy offense to any who disclaim their culture. Now culture can contain art, literature, and religion, but it also can hold a nation’s diet, entertainment, and personalities. These are all important aspects to a culture, which all boils down to how people interpret each society. When one tries to describe a society by the amount of wealth a nation has or by the surplus population they are determining another’s culture. In this passage Jennifer Price writes a synopsis on the eye-catching plastic flamingo in a way that criticizes American culture; she uses critical tone, arrogant descriptions, and irony.
Beginning with some of the most noticeable content in this passage, Price uses critical and sarcastic tone when describing American culture. Even more than describing America sarcastically, she begins to reveal her belief that Americans are sarcastic and critical
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people. Price mentions sarcastically, “No wonder that the subtropical species stood out so loudly when Americans in temperate New England reproduced it, brightened it, and sent it wading across an inland sea of grass.” She uses her sarcasm to lead to the fact that citizens of the United States are also sarcastic and are critical when it comes to America’s outward appearance. The author goes on, “This was a little ironic, since Americans had hunted flamingos to extinction in Florida in the late 1800s, for plumes and meat. But no matter.” Her judgmental tone and quick sarcasm is perfectly displayed to show how Americans supposedly lack care for another, and ignore the wrong doings they have committed. This article explicitly states her opinions on American way of life and has little good to proclaim of them. In addition, several times throughout this passage, Price uses examples that lead to the conclusion that America is known to be a home for arrogance to explain the American way of life, or culture. By accomplishing this she uses the plastic, flamboyant, pink flamingo to describe our wealth and desire to stand out from everyone else in the world. The author writes, “Anyone who has seen Las Vegas knows that a flamingo stands out in a desert even more strikingly than on a lawn.” When incorporating this in her article she proves that she believes a key component to our American culture is a heavy sense of pride and arrogance. She goes on to use words such as, “extravagance”, “flamboyant”, “boldness”, “flashy”, and “brighter anything else around it.” All of these examples cover many national ideals Price believes Americans are known to have, which pertain to appearing wealthy, and a desire to stand out from everyone else in the world. Price over abundantly exploits her literary tools to prove America’s culture as a selfish-driven and arrogant society. Furthermore, irony is the basis of this article by comparing the American culture to the highly ordained pink and plastic flamingo.
For starters, the fact that Price uses this object to compare with America evidently shows she has strong feelings against the American way of life. She states, “In ancient Egypt, it symbolized the Sun God Ra. In Mexico and the Caribbean, it remains a major motif in art, dance, and literature.” By providing this fact she gives background to why she compares the United States to the Flamingo, because with this one object she can predict our national desires and beliefs. The author goes on to say, “And in South Beach, especially, architects employed the playful Art Deco style, replete with bright pinks and flamingo motifs.” Price is able prove with this fact how one single object changed much American culture and history more than many have thought. With both of these examples she is able to mention and backup her points on how the flamingo pertains to American
culture. The author’s use of sarcasm, description of arrogance, and noticeable irony all prove what she believes America’s culture consists of. She obviously has many reasons why she dislikes the American culture, but these reasons are only a part of her opinion. It is important to think of what a culture consists of, especially looking back on one’s own culture. All man-kind should try to improve each’s culture because it is what defines all human beings.
We all know the flamingo as a bird which is covered in a gorgeous color of pink feathers. Most of us also know as the bird which sleeps while balanced on one leg. We also know it as an exotic dance; which is danced in a plethora of latin american countries. But we do not know it as a plastic bird which Americans altered to make it theirs. Jennifer Price does an amazing job of making us look and think for her view of the United States culture by emphasizing things such as economic growth and how it help through events such as the Great Depression. Because of this we can conclude that she views American culture as a prestigious one, but is it really?
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 Americans toward their misdeeds as they clamored for wealth. However, she uses this example of American culture's greed to also contrast it with the rising popularity of the plastic flamingo in the 1950s. This rising desire for flamingos was not to kill them like before but to make them. This three-sixty turn around was far from the American's normal way of dealing with flamingos. Both killing and making the flamingos however displayed American culture's avarice since hunting and making the flamingo produced a profit, and the plastic flamingo produced was also a display of wealth. Thus, the plastic flamingos not only displayed opulence, but also produced opulence through their rising popularity which caused an increase in production of and profit from the plastic flamingos. Also, Price again uses a sarcastic tone through her diction when she says, "[the flamingo] was a flamingo," (line 3) as well as when she says, "the flamingo was pink." (line 30) Price uses these two phrases to mock the popularity ...
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"This was a little ironic, since Americans had hunted flamingos to extinction in Florida" (Price lines 13-14). Price may be putting down American because Americans tend to follow the crowd and copy what everyone else is doing. The flamingo could be a metaphor of how Americans are followers and do not come up with their own ideas. The plastic pink flamingo gave an "extra fillip of boldness" (Price line 20). The flamingo was a way for Americans to stand out in the crowd and be noticed. Americans were flashy, cocky, and maybe even a little bit conceited.
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Jennifer Price’s essay “The Pink Plastic Flamingo: A Natural History” draws upon a cornucopia of historical evidence, both of the United States and other world cultures, to reveal to the audience--readers in America who may harbor an affinity for pop culture history--that the seemingly innocuous American flamingo, perched calmly on the lawns of Americans both North and South, is actually the product of a rich, flamboyant cultural tradition in the United States and in other civilizations. By giving such a varied and in-depth treatment of the origins of the pink flamingo--through a long, insightful narrative and figures of speech--Price reveals her respect for the eclectic and rich heritage that the United States has acquired.
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Kroeber, A. and C. Klockhohn, Culture: A Critical Review of Concept and Definition New York: Vintage Books, 1989.