Pink: Flamingo and Price
STUDENT SAMPLE ESSAYS (Price essay / pink flamingo)
Sample #1 In her essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History,” Jennifer Price examines the strange popularity of the popular lawn accessory of the 1950s. In discussing the history of flamingos and the color pink, Price criticizes Americans and American culture for its frivolity and ignorance. Price begins the passage by describing the relevance of flamingos pre-50s. She begins this paragraph with a slightly critical tone, exemplified by the use of italics in the sentence,
“First, it was a flamingo.” Italicizing part of this sentence gives the impression of saying, “Of all things, it was a flamingo.” Prices on to use litotes in stating that “this was a little ironic …”
Moreover, Price makes a sarcastic remark when she tells us it was “no matter” immediately after stating that Americans had hunted flamingos to extinction 150 years prior. These remarks criticize the ignorance of American culture. Price goes on to describe the flamingo’s association with “leisure and extravagance” due to its synonmity with the city of Las Vegas (which is metaphorically called an oasis). Prices makes another critical remark when she states that “[a]nyone who has seen Las Vegas … on a lawn” by touching on the ridiculousness of flamingos as lawn decorations. Furthermore, Price compares the plastic flamingos to a “line of semiotic sprouts,” insinuating that the popularity of the flamingos is like a patch of weeds: annoying and unsightly. Again, Price uses italics in the third paragraph to create the same effect as in paragraph one: to express how bizarre an aspect of the plastic flamingos were. Price juxtaposes this negative opening statements with cheerful quotes about that “flashy” plastics industry of the
1950s. By this juxtaposition, Price makes Americans of the 1950s seem frivolous and silly.
Price continues this effect by further explaining Americans’ obsession with the color
Sample #1 In her essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History,” Jennifer Price examines the strange popularity of the popular lawn accessory of the 1950s. In discussing the history of flamingos and the color pink, Price criticizes Americans and American culture for its frivolity and ignorance. Price begins the passage by describing the relevance of flamingos pre-50s. She begins this paragraph with a slightly critical tone, exemplified by the use of italics in the sentence,
“First, it was a flamingo.” Italicizing part of this sentence gives the impression of saying, “Of all things, it was a flamingo.” Prices on to use litotes in stating that “this was a little ironic …”
Moreover, Price makes a sarcastic remark when she tells us it was “no matter” immediately after stating that Americans had hunted flamingos to extinction 150 years prior. These remarks criticize the ignorance of American culture. Price goes on to describe the flamingo’s association with “leisure and extravagance” due to its synonmity with the city of Las Vegas (which is metaphorically called an oasis). Prices makes another critical remark when she states that “[a]nyone who has seen Las Vegas … on a lawn” by touching on the ridiculousness of flamingos as lawn decorations. Furthermore, Price compares the plastic flamingos to a “line of semiotic sprouts,” insinuating that the popularity of the flamingos is like a patch of weeds: annoying and unsightly. Again, Price uses italics in the third paragraph to create the same effect as in paragraph one: to express how bizarre an aspect of the plastic flamingos were. Price juxtaposes this negative opening statements with cheerful quotes about that “flashy” plastics industry of the
1950s. By this juxtaposition, Price makes Americans of the 1950s seem frivolous and silly.
Price continues this effect by further explaining Americans’ obsession with the color