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. “the Flamingo made the bird synonymous with wealth and pizzazz…” Implying that the plastic pink flamingo was used as a way to stand out in the 50’s after being used by the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas to attract customers. Having a pink flamingo made ones yard “pop” to the eyes of someone passing by, since the bright colors of the flamingo attract attention. Not only did the flamingo represent wealth but also style through the popular colors of the decade. “The hues were forward looking rather than old fashioned, just right for a generation raised in the Depression that was ready to celebrate its new affluence.” The flamingo stood out. Brighter colors in this decade illustrated wealth, since in the Depression …show more content…
With a cynical tone Price suggest that flamingos have always been special to people and in other cultures used as important symbols in music,literature, religion and dance, but in America just used to stand out and show affluence. Americans “reproduced it, brightened it and sent it wading across an inland sea of grass” Price feels that when Americans popularized plastic pink flamingos it was made “two major claims to boldness” the first being that it was a flamingo,in the original text the word is italicized showing emphasis on the strangeness of this American
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. “the Flamingo made the bird synonymous with wealth and pizzazz…” Implying that the plastic pink flamingo was used as a way to stand out in the 50’s after being used by the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas to attract customers. Having a pink flamingo made ones yard “pop” to the eyes of someone passing by, since the bright colors of the flamingo attract attention. Not only did the flamingo represent wealth but also style through the popular colors of the decade. “The hues were forward looking rather than old fashioned, just right for a generation raised in the Depression that was ready to celebrate its new affluence.” The flamingo stood out. Brighter colors in this decade illustrated wealth, since in the Depression …show more content…
With a cynical tone Price suggest that flamingos have always been special to people and in other cultures used as important symbols in music,literature, religion and dance, but in America just used to stand out and show affluence. Americans “reproduced it, brightened it and sent it wading across an inland sea of grass” Price feels that when Americans popularized plastic pink flamingos it was made “two major claims to boldness” the first being that it was a flamingo,in the original text the word is italicized showing emphasis on the strangeness of this American