Analysis on materialism and pink flamingo

“Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, producing everything chocarrero, and every real truth false. ” These serious words spoken by Swiss philosopher Henri Amiel illustrate the wretched vulgarity and superficiality with the virus-like propagate of materialism. In the article entitled “The Pink Flamingo: A Natural History” by Jennifer Price, Price examines the popularity of the well-known green flamingo and just how it pertains to the values and vagaries of American culture. Using American fascination of the plastic, lilac flamingo as her method, Jennifer Cost shows her evident contempt for the superficial materialism present in American society.

Jennifer Cost introduces her analysis in the flamingo gimmick by delivering the surge of the pink flamingo in American tradition and how contemporary society reacted after the popularization of this cultural icon. Cost effectively illustrates the American public’s a reaction to the introduction of the plastic, green flamingo by simply implementing certain diction that reinforces her own opinions of the “flamingo boom”. Being a mindless go of wild birds following one another without much believed as to why, Selling price writes that “Since the 1930s, visiting Americans had been flocking to Florida and returning house with flamingo souvenirs.

” Price’s choice to describe People in america as “flocking” is meant to ascertain a comparison into a flock of mindless wild birds; in effect, the author characterizes Americans as popularity followers whom lack any kind of consideration intended for the study of their traditions and the conceptual purpose in back of their representational icons.

The writer also gives how Americans have made the plastic, pink flamingo as symbolic of riches and luxurious. Price declares that “In the 1910s and twenties, Miami Beach’s first grand hotel, the Flamingo, got made the bird synonymous with wealth and style. ” Inside the context of the essay, conditions like “wealth” and “pizzazz” possess a low, superficial connotation that as a result translates into the flamingo as not only like a symbol of wealth and pizzazz nevertheless also a image of superficiality and chocarrero ostentation. Price’s introductory paragraph is significant to the aim of the article because it illustrates the magnitude of the flamingo fascination and how Americans irrationally react to the flamingo’s popularity.

In reiteration of Price’s stance, large criticism inside the essay with the plastic flamingo’s inbuilt boldness simply because it symbolizes an amazing creature describes Price’s severe disdain intended for the vagaries of American society. Price utilizes an satrical situation together with historical data when she attempts to establish a connection between real flamingos and plastic material flamingos. Us citizens, Price remarks, “had sought after flamingos to extinction in Florida back in the 1800s, to get plumes and meat. Nevertheless no matter. In the 1950s, the new interstates would pull working-class tourists down, also. ” Price bluntly uses facts and historical study about American culture to express her disgust of the paradox that the American nation has established for by itself with regards to the plastic-type material, pink flamingo. When Value writes “But no matter, ” she reinforces the implication that it is as if American society regards the destruction with the flamingo because trivial because capitalist world would advantage more in the production of plastic flamingos that could deliver revenue.

Therefore, a land that embraces the flamingo in all its natural beauty after he was so dangerous of the organic population reveals the ironic carelessness and hypocrisy of yankee society. Furthermore, Price uses the image with the pink flamingo with its organic boldness to emphasize her level about the ignorance of american citizens and their lifestyle. The author states, “The chicken acquired another fillip of boldness, as well, from the course of Las Vegas with…Flamingo Hotel. Anyone who has seen Las Vegas sees that a flamingo stands out in a desert a lot more strikingly than on a yard. “

The straightforward fact that a flamingo is a subtropical animal unfit to live in the desert gives Selling price the justification to illustrate how People in america took the flamingo fad to such extreme altitudes without supplying one view to the appropriateness of the flamingo in context. In doing so , Price once more conveys the total ignorance and lack of thought that brands American society. The passage in which Price asserts her belief about the ironic scenario American society has place itself in supports a belief that Americans have taken their infatuation so far as to having destroyed a population of animals for the sake of wealth and luxury; as a result, the red flamingo, inside the context of Price’s essay, is merely a symbol of the chocarrero materialism People in the usa possess due to their ignorance and inconsideration pertaining to the appropriateness of doing damage to flamingos and “plasticizing” all of them.

Jennifer Cost provides further more details about the plastic flamingo’s image which in turn forces someone to question if the plastic-type material flamingo is definitely even near being a valid representation of its real life counterpart. Price’s use of imagery in her essay as well as the interpretation that follows shows that the girl believes the plastic flamingo is obviously not really fit to represent the true flamingo. Price prospect lists the colors, “tangerine, broiling magenta, livid green, incarnadine, fuchsia demure, Congo ruby, methyl green, ” in order to set up images that overwhelm the reader’s brain with daring colors. The extremely bold shades of the plastic flamingo such as “livid pink” and “broiling magenta” produce the conclusion the plastic flamingo could never be synonymous with the silent, demure brilliancy of a actual flamingo.

Thus, once the audience has interpreted the color images and figured all of the hues are just “too much”, the reader can make the bond that culture is also “too much” captivated with putting on pretenses of prosperity as opposed to concentrating on issues that seriously matter including the preservation from the real flamingo. Price as well makes use of duplication in order to exhibit the degree of the plastic material flamingo’s color in world. Jennifer Cost states, “Washing machines, autos, and home counters proliferated in passion pink, sun pink, and Bermuda pink. ” Simply by stating the fact that pink novelty present in the plastic flamingo was also transferred in household appliances such as washing machines and kitchen counters, Price implies that the materialism and vulgarity of appearing wealthy spread in the home; the infiltration of materialism in to the home resulted in the desire to get wealth and extravagance experienced also infiltrated the facets of American lifestyle.

Price’s critique of the flamingo’s color enchantment supports the essay’s proven fact that Americans are only satisfied by simply boldness and extravagance as evident in the green coloration of household kitchen appliances because green was the colour of the symbolic pink flamingo of riches; Americans, therefore, have difficulty equating modesty and demureness with any sort of wealth. The simple idea is that luxury and flamboyance are the way to go if one wants to show up wealthy. People in the usa who desire prosperity are as a result subject to the whims of materialism and superficiality.

Mcdougal concludes by simply delivering a spat that criticizes American views and values, or the deficiency of, as being fresh and insulting towards the significance of the flamingo itself. Jennifer Price uses cultural facts from other nations around the world to present the value of the flamingo. She declares, “People…have usually singled out the flamingo because special. Early Christians associated it while using red phoenix. In historic Egypt, it symbolized the sun god Ra. In South america and the Caribbean, it continues to be a major theme in fine art, dance, and literature. ” The author uses these facts to justify that the decrease of the excellent flamingo in American culture to a simple plastic memento attached to lawn is a shameful comparison to other cultures that respect nature and revered the bird as a glorious sign.

Price then simply makes use of parallelism in order to enhance her criticism of American lifestyle. In the essay, Price declares, “No question that the semitropical species stood out so loudly the moment Americans in temperate New England produced it, brightened it, and sent that wading around an inland sea of grass. ” By using reproducing sentence set ups through parallelism, Price stresses that Americans have done so many things to the flamingo that the plastic-type material version is really far taken off its original counterpart. Thus, Americans taking sight with the intended authentic meaning in back of embracing the flamingo to start with. The significance of the section in the essay is important because it not only allows the writer to go beyond criticism from the flamingo, but it also shows that, inside the grand plan of points, Price was more objective on exposing and criticizing the true quality of all American cultural ideals.

Jennifer Price allegorized the fascination from the plastic flamingo in order to establish a sort of evaluation between infatuation with getting plastic flamingos that stand for wealth as well as the materialism evident in American culture. Although the essay mainly depicts American society while insensitive and inconsiderate according to the author’s strengthen, the satirical nature with the essay supplies a subtle, underlying, hopeful connotation that probably one day American society will learn to go past their materialistic greed and ascend to a new type of wealth.

Bibliography:

Jennifer Price’s essay “The Plastic material Pink Flamingo: A Natural History”

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