Rhetorical Analysis Of The Pink Flamingo: A Natural History

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.

Wart is curious about why there are sentries around, so he insistently asks Lyo-Lyok if the geese are fighting with other armies of geese. She is appalled by the questions he asks because she cannot understand how members of the same species would want to harm each other. She says that there are natural enemies of the geese, so there should be no reason for the geese to fight each other instead of fighting those enemies. In this transformation, Wart learns another type of government: socialism. Everything that is done is done for the best of the community. He learns from Lyo-Lyok that this method of government is good, too.

As a kid she used to hide pennies in the sidewalk for others to find by following her drawn arrows on the asphalt that would say “Surprise ahead” or “Money this way”. In a different story in which she goes to investigate a racket near an Osage orange tree and sees a mere tree before the appearance of hundreds of birds. She is trying to imply that no matter what kind of a first impression you form it is always different than the actual truth that can only be seen if you truly pay any attention. The author specifically used these two childhood stories in her essay, because she wants to show us that the appearances of Mother Nature are like the pennies. Free treasures to be searched, found and appreciated, no matter how long or closely one has to look the reward will always “… catch at my throat…”.

Brennan French 10/22/14 Mrs. Yeates 3 Red Flamingo In the essay, “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History”, the author Jennifer Price provides a brief history of the flamingo, but she does more than just describe the bird. She creates a far more significant insight through her tone, word choice and use of examples. Which leads her to analyze the American mindset along with the culture. Price begins the essay with a sense of thrill due to her use of the words “boldness” and “splashed”.

Price begins her essay with a metaphor. She uses verbs related to the flamingo such as “splashed” and “flocking,” to explain how Americans “had made the bird synonymous with wealth and pizzazz” (Price). Notice the contrary

Well-known essayist and writer, Jennifer Price in her recent essay, “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History” examines the popularity of the plastic pink flamingos in the 1950s. Price does more than just describe the exotic bird. Through her tone and word choice throughout her essay, Price uses examples to analyze the real meaning of the evolvement of the bird in the view of United States culture. The beginning of her essay is shown in an enthusiastic manner by acknowledging the significance of the flamingo’s from the early 1930s. She begins this paragraph in a slightly analytical tone, by her use of italics in the sentence, “First, it was a flamingo” saying, “Of all things, it was a flamingo.”

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

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

In his article, “In Richmond, students seek to revive ‘Rebel’ mascot” published by The Washington Post, T. Rees Shapiro says that a group of students, graduates and parents started and signed a petition to bring back an old mascot because many students think or have the concept that the mascot will be a catalyst to improve the school’s spirit, the athletic occurrence and others; yet, because the mascot represents ‘rebels’, which shows relations to the confederacy and slavery, it is controversial. However, proponents of the mascot change such as Charlie Bonner says that although the idea of a Confederate soldier appears to bring bad memories to many people and many schools and universities such as the University of Mississippi, got rid of their

Throughout the poem the speaker mentions things that relate to consumerism in America. An example in the poem that speaks about consumerism comes from lines 1-4

Throughout the passage, Price conveys her tone as ironic and sarcastic. She has pointed out her irony when she said how it was “a little ironic since Americans had hunted flamingos to extinction in Florida in the late 1800s…”To Americans, flamingos are considered to be a symbol of wealth and prosperity since they were hunted for their “plumes and meat.” This shows that Americans are hypocritical for symbolizing the flamingo in a positive light, while at the same time, they are becoming nearly extinct due to Americans hunting them. Even in the title, it is ironic because of its contrasting words of ‘plastic’ and ‘natural.’ In connection with tone, Price also uses extravagant diction to mock the prominence of the flamingo, by using words such as ‘pizzazz,’ ‘striking,’ and ‘boldness.’ By doing this, it reflects

While the United States were obsessed with flamingos in the 1900s, Florida residents hunted the bird in prior years. In her second paragraph, Price calls this new found fad “ironic.” She explains that “Americans hunted flamingos to extinction in Florida in the late 1850s.” Any animal being hunted that much is a travesty, yet not even a century later, Americans used this graceful bird as a lawn ornament to express “leisure and extravagance.” These powerful adjectives demonstrate the level of disregard people

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,

She uses a very elegant word choice in statements like “the Flamingo, had made the bird synonymous with wealth and pizazz…” giving the audience a more in-depth look of just how much the Flamingos were viewed by Americans. Price the delivers “in 1956, right after he signed his first recording contract, Elvis presley bought a pink Cadillac. This detail enhances her credibility by showing the audience that she is very knowledgeable and an expert in her field. The irony comes into play when she mentions “ Americans had hunted flamingos to extinction in Florida in the late 1800s” which taints the reputation of America by creating the image that American society is greedy and irresponsible. She then builds upon this thought by comparing how we treat the Flamingos, and how other cultures treat them “always singled out the Flamingo as special. Early christians associated it with the red phoenix. In ancient Egypt, it symbolized the sun god

Price is using her sarcastic tone to describe how she feels about America killing the flamingo one minute and then using as a symbol the next. She continues to indirectly attack the American views. Price asks the question, “Why, after all, call the birds ‘pink flamingos’-as if they could be blue or green?”(46-47). Price’s repeated sarcastic tone is criticism of