Essay 1
Price crafts her essay to illustrate how superficial
American culture was in the 1950’s. She uses various
examples, descriptions, mini-anecdotes, historical facts,
and comparisons to explain her point. She also uses a
very relaxed and direct tone to further support her
arguments.
Price begins her essay by writing, “…the pink
flamingo splashed into the fifties.” The word
“splashed” seems to be synonymous with Price’s view
of U.S culture, especially the colorful nature of society
in the 1950’s. In addition, Price continues by detailing
how the flamingo came to be synonymous with wealth
and pizzazz, two qualities that also characterize U.S.
culture. Price implies the U.S culture was very much
centered on affluence, flashy material objects, and
boldness (i.e. challenging of old values.)
Price then adds her disapprovement of American
culture by noting the irony of its actions. She inducts
how Americans hunted flamingos to extinction in
Florida in the late 1800s. but now held them with such
high value in the 1950s. Price emphasizes once again
the leisure culture of the nation combined with its liking
for color and money.
To really illustrate her point about the flashy ness of
the culture, Price uses the actual color of the flamingo
and its prevalence during the 1950s. Price gives
numerous examples, such as pink washing machines,
cars, kitchen corianders, and even a Cadillac. By giving
such examples, Price implies the foolishness of
Americans and American culture. She appears to be
mocking American culture, especially with her use of
italics. She italicizes flamingo and pink in her essay to
perhaps illustrate the stupidity of Americans in valuing
them for such superficial reasons.
Price concludes her essay by indicating how
superficial American culture truly is, especially in
relation to other cultures. While ancient Egyptians used
the flamingo to symbolize the sun god and the
Mexicans used it as a major motif in art, dance, and
literature, the Americans “reproduced it” and
“brightened it” to symbolize their affluence,
flamboyance, colorfulness, and leisure-centered culture.
Behind her creative language, vivid descriptions and
examples, and interesting comparisons, Price subtly
inserts her disdain for American culture in the 1950s by
also using an ironic tone, especially evident in her
ending statement.
Score = 6 (Answers question but lacks strong
organization, voice, and in-depth analysis)
Essay 2
Over the past several decades, American lawns have
been transformed. First came garden gnomes- eerie,
miniature Santa Clause look-a-likes with vibrant red
hats and intimidatingly joyous grins. Although they
overpowered the world with their charm, gnomes were
only paving the way for an even brighter and more
obnoxious yard accessory: the pink flamingo.
Jennifer Price’s recent essay “The Plastic Flamingo:
A Natural History” is comical, witty, and whimsical. It
is surprisingly informative and can surely cause even
the most obnoxious elderly Floridians to rethink the
hideous, plastic, pink bird roosting amongst geraniums.
Though Price may seem to be merely providing
information about faux flamingos, her readers can
easily sense a stronger voice lingering beneath a shell
of facts.
In her essay Price comments on the irony of the
flamboyant décor, stating that “Americans had hunted
flamingos…for plumes and meat.” Not only had people
hunted them, but they had driven them to extinction! It
seems that Price finds the situation comical. Are
Americans so proud of ridding our country of flamingos
that we feel the need to display an ad nauseum of
plastic replicas in front of our homes? “But no matter.”
Price dismisses with a touch of sarcasm.
The plastic birds were originally souvenirs from
Florida. The vivacity of the colorful flamingos sparked
new business across the state- something Price focuses
on in her essay. Stemming from Miami’s first grand
hotel named The Flamingo, the image of these
delightfully rosy birds was transformed from an extinct
species to one with “pizzazz.” Price seems to be poking
fun also that these seemingly exotic souvenirs were not
exotic at all, but merely humorous molds of plastic
bought at a casino or resort.
Price also seems to be of the opinion that, despite
Americans’ love for these beautiful birds, we thrust
them into our flower beds as representation of vacations
we’ve taken- not as tokens and symbols of the power
flamingos were once believed to have had. “Early
Christians associated it with the red phoenix. In ancient
Egypt, it symbolized the sun god Ra. In Mexico and the
Caribbean, it remains a major motif in art, dance, and
literature.” It is clear that the glory the flamingo was
once bestowed with is now nothing more than the glory
possessed by a bumpersticker stating “I LOVE
FLORIDA.”
Overall, it seems as if Price is poking fun at
Americans. These blushing birds we so proudly display
on our lawns are merely emblems of our foolishness.
We drive the species to extinction, only to revive them
with plastic and metal stakes as soon as it was
considered “cool.” There is so much information behind
these works of art- information that most people will
never know. So while Jennifer Price is blindly mocking
Americans, most people don’t care. Yet as long as these
pink flamingos are resting outside our doors, we will
only be making ourselves look increasingly foolish.
Score = 8 (Strong voice, effective use of quotes,
developed analysis)