Pink Plastic Flamingo

           In her essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History”, Jennifer Price carefully examines the beginning and influence of “plastic pink flamingo phenomenon.” Furthermore, she also delineates the bright nature of real flamingos. However, Price’s main purpose is not to introduce the readers of either real or artificial flamingos. In fact, Jennifer Price tries to reveals her view of United States culture by talking about these plastic flamingos. In doing so, Price incorporates certain rhetorical devices, such as strong diction, anecdotes, and listing to reinforce her arguments about the United States culture.

           Jennifer Price’s use of strong diction clearly reveals how the “plastic pink flamingo phenomenon” reflects popular cultures of America in the 1950s. She uses the word “boldness” very frequently to describe this pink flamingo’s “splash” into the market. She also argues that the flamingo stands out “strikingly” in a desert. Her use of such emphatic words let readers imagine  strong, or rather bold nature of American culture in the 1950s; these words give the readers a chance to feel how suddenly the pink plastic flamingo appeared in American culture and how impressive its effects were. Thus, such use of strong diction helped emphasizing Price’s opinion that this new wave of American culture in the 1950s was rather abrupt and forceful.

           Furthermore, Price incorporates an anecdote in her essay to fortify her point. In the second paragraph, she narrates a story of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and how he could successfully conjure the riches with flamingo hotels. This story tells us that flamingos in the middle of the desert were very conspicuous, and that this “conspicuousness” attracted the riches to come to this hotel. By accommodating this anecdote, Price implicitly claims that American culture was obsessed at things that really stood out, and that it even liked things that were so striking as to be considered absurd in some ways. With an anecdote, Jennifer Price points out the fact that Americans by then wished to show off and distinguish themselves from all others.

           In addition to italicizing the word “pink” in the third paragraph, Jennifer Price also uses listing to underline how American culture was obsessed with celebrating its new affluence. In the last sentence of the third paragraph, Price relates “Washing machines, cars, and kitchen counters proliferated in passion pink, sunset pink, and Bermuda pink.” Her listing of many different kinds of “pink” color successfully emphasizes her argument that Americans blindly sought after flashy colors – especially pink colors - to declare others that they have risen up from the Great Depression, and that they were now ready to take this new era with ardor.

           1950s was definitely a time of change for many Americans. These people had overcome a great hardship, and were ready for a new start. Jennifer Price relates in her essay that American culture was very strong and powerful at the time, and that it really wished to stand out and show off its wealth. Price’s incorporation of rhetorical devices – including powerful diction, an anecdote, and listings – certainly does a job in delivering her opinions to the readers in a much clearer way.