The Plastic Pink Flamingo Analysis

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
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Many Americans believe that the popularity of the flamingo was because of themselves only, but Price claims otherwise quite profusely, stating that “Americanized flamingos” were a “hotter pink than a real flamingo” (48), which disagrees with the statement that the American brand of flamingo was simply a paint job to an animal that’s been around and hunted for decades. Her accusations of the American people about stealing from other cultures around the world and turning them into something they claim they created are also explained in greater detail as Price writes, “In ancient Egypt, it symbolized the sun god Ra” (55-56), and how in Mexico and the tropics the flamingo “remains a major motif in art, dance, and literature” (57-58). With how she handles these points in the text, her views of American culture are becoming much clearer; instead of crafting her text around how the flamingo fad was a turning point in American culture, she honestly points a finger at the American people for stealing an image that’s been around for much longer than their own country has, and they shouldn’t claim it as their

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