Criticize American Culture In The 1950's

Improved Essays
The 1950s were a time of great change in the U.S, overcoming the depression and WWII hardships, Americans were finally ready for a new start. The boldness and extravagance that a bright colored bird symbolised was not only a reflection of the strive for individualism, but also the consumerist mindset that Americans had. Price connects this norm is to follow what everyone is doing or what everyone is buying to pretentious ideals and in a sarcastic manner, affirms the greed of American society. Although an unusual way to criticize American culture, Price’s attitude and logical approach easily persuades the audience to understand her point of view.

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    This section focuses heavily on the concept of "reconversion", which encouraged American families to re-think their ideas of middle-class comforts and expectations, as well as push the notion that consumption was not only selfish, but charitable. In so doing, "reconversion" tidily relates the "new postwar order" with consumerism. Cohen uses the example of a 1947 Life Magazine article which encourages families to "buy more for itself to better the living of others. "[2 ]…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the “Little Rock Girl 1957” it says on page 15 “Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time, and in the same place.” What does this quote mean to you? In the 1950’s the Civil Rights movement was at it’s worst. In the early 1950’s the Brown v Board of Education court case threatened to segregate schools so whites and blacks would be separated. The media illuminated events by broadcasting the news with TV, radio, photos, and newspaper to attract a national audience.…

    • 248 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jennifer Price in her recent essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History” alludes her view of the United States culture which is that in the 1950’s the American culture was ignorant. The author’s purpose is to illustrate her point of view so that the reader gets to see another perspective of culture in the U.S. Price appeals to her audience by giving facts about the flamingo and how it has and still is seen through eyes across the world. When starting her essay, Price exclaims that America’s culture is known to be materialistic by saying that “Americans had been flocking to Florida and returning home with flamingo souvenirs” and that in the 1910’s and 20’s, there were grand hotels made. Americans trademarked the flamingo as a symbol…

    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jennifer Price’s view of American culture in her essay, “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History”, is communicated through quite sarcastic and accusing tones with how she crafts her text. As you read through the piece, Price delivers many facts about the influence of the “pink sensation”, or the flamingo image, in American culture during the 1950s. The way she delivers this, however, gives the impression that she doesn’t particularly favor American culture and her views of the topic aren’t those of positivity and outright worship. First Price begins her piece with how the image of the flamingo came to be such a well-known one throughout the United States, claiming that it “staked two major claims to boldness” (2). During the 1910s and…

    • 1002 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Plastic Pink Flamingo by Jennifer Price In her essay, Price’s emphasis on the plastic pink flamingo and the symbol it has of wealth and style in the 1950’s, along with the irony of the importance of the pink flamingo to the United States culture implies that Price views United States culture as fake and bold, as a way of ridiculous or strange. Price uses the plastic pink flamingo as a symbol of wealth and style throughout the passage to prove her view of American culture being fake. Fake as in not actually about the general interest of something, like the actual flamingo, but the popularity of flamingos at the time.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1960s Dbq Analysis

    • 1437 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The 1950s have always been portrayed as a perfectly painted picture, an era of traditionalism, prosperity, and conformity, however, as the 1960s ushered in the United States proved to be the complete opposite with recklessness, disillusionment, and protest. Many historians identify these two decades this way and it is completely true considering both social and political aspects of the 1950s and the 1960s are incredibly different. Political aspects in the 1950s were outstanding, the economy was great and a great military leader was the president of the era, Eisenhower. After the war production of the 1930s and 1940s, factories across the nation began to switch over to consumer production and a combination of war inflation and new found consumerism…

    • 1437 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the exposition "The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History" by Jennifer Price; the author is extremely certain on her thought and perspective on the point on the United States society. The thought is that the U.S.A 's way of life is extremely self important, this is appeared by her perspective on how Americans are so stress with their picture that is been seen by society. Value utilizes numerous written work strategies to express her perspective on United States society, by the utilization of word usage, imagery, and tone Price can pass on her investigation on the ravenousness and the defilement happening in the American society. Simply taking a gander at the title the peruser as of now gets the point over that the writer will be utilizing…

    • 1360 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Macy gromowsky 7th grade english mrs.king January 20,1016 culture of the 60s! Many people don’t understand how important 1960 was to the united states of America. But it was the decisions made then that shaped America today.there was protests,sit ins and riots along with music,hippies and drug abuse. The war was also going on at this time.…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The author of this article about the pink flamingos’ effect on U.S. culture is Jennifer Price. In this article she uses simple but effective diction to inform you on her view. Price’s syntax uses short, simple sentences surrounded by a few longer descriptive sentences. She also involves figurative language in this article to give a visual aid of what she is trying to convey. The use of three tools help to express her negative and sassy attitude towards the effect of pink flamingos on America’s culture.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On The 1950's

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1950’s Research Paper The 1950’s was a very big decade for America in many different aspects. Even entertainment has been important, including sports such as football, baseball, and basketball. Sports have been around for a very long time and the 1950’s was a very big decade for the development of sports. Sports have allowed communities to come together and have given kids role models to look up to.…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The 1950’s were one of the most prosperous decades with its new technology, new medicine advances, new cars, and moving to the suburbs were all contributing factors to why the 1950’s was such a prosperous time. The fundamentals of the prosperous 1950 's were new cars, suburban lifestyle, advances in technology and medicine, and pop culture. Since Americans were receiving a larger income it lead to more spending on extra items American popular culture made the 1950s one of the most prospering decades; However, celebrities of the 1950 's were threatening American moral values in a negative way along with the new society developing. The 1950’s was a prospering time in the economy but American moral values were changing with new trends and daring ideas with celebrities and is why teenagers and parents had such a difficult time agreeing on the same values. Teenagers view on fashion and values was changing because of television and…

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “The 1960s arguably inflicted more devastating blows on American society than any other decade of this century,” writes journalist Richard Stolley (Brash 1). A majority of conservatives may dispute the sixties… hence the nickname: “The Turbulent Years.” However, a balanced examination must not only take into account the contentious aspects but also the positive impact this decade had on America’s future. Alexis de Tocqueville stated that American Exceptionalism was propelled by the following five characteristics: liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism, and laissez-faire economics.…

    • 1899 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Through the mid 1940s and the 1960s, many Americans were quite confident in their country with the majority of the population having a healthy lifestyle. During these decades, the U.S. made many achievements, one of them being NASA’s successful moon landing on July 20, 1969. The accomplishment of this trip caused many Americans to feel relieved knowing that they had beat the Soviet Union to the moon. Not only were Americans satisfied with their country’s status, but also many American families were financially stable and able to start a large family, causing the average birth rate per 1,000 people to be 24.38 in 1954. However, by the start of the 1970s, many Americans lost hope in their country as many problems began to occur, such as other foreign countries catching up and eventually upstaging America financially .…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In American History there have been many significant people like Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama who have fought for the better tomorrow of the United States of America and have left a great legacy from their political achievements that have developed in the United States from the 20th century to the present. To begin with Earl Warren, an American jurist and politician was appointed to be the 14th Chief Justice of the United States from the 1950’s-1960’s. The significance in this was that Warren was a great contributor to the important decisions of rulings that made racial segregation in schools unconstitutional Brown v. Board of Education. Besides this, other significant and important decisions during the Warren Court…

    • 1900 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He attacks the advertising agency, that entices us of a form of commodity fetishism: or as the film calls it “ Ikea nesting instinct.” Fincher argues this demonstrates a frank dissatisfaction of the America they inherent, with its false pretext of the American dream, But argues for a more carnal and hedonistic approach to life. Forgetting the common interest of others and focuses on the pursuit of absolute freedom. This America and Frank Capra’s America places the two facets of American Doctrine as…

    • 1308 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays