Pink Flamingo

America puts its value on a variety of things. Such things as our countries flag and its colors, red, white and blue are held in reverence. The eagle, which symbolizes freedom, is shown as America’s symbol. But of all the strange things to become popular for the United States is another bird. In Jennifer Price’s essay, she speaks of how the flamingo became so popular in America. She talks about how this vibrant bird was brought to everyone’s attention in the early 20th century. After reading her essay, it is easy to conclude that Jennifer believes America to be gullible. I will reveal to you how Jennifer exhibits her view of the United States culture.
Price shows that the flamingo represents the one thing that sparks everyone’s attention: money. Jennifer mainly uses diction to show why this flamingo became so popular. She uses adjectives like “boldness”, “synonymous”, and “pizzazz” that are very forthright and make you draw near to what she has to say. Also these words suggest wealth to explain why this bird seemed to attract the eye of every American. Another reason why money was key in this trend is because the country is finally out of their “great depression” and is urging everyone to move forward.
Although money may seem to be everything in this style of things, color helped tremendously. Price proves this fact using parallelism of the word pink. Of course we know that flamingos are pink because they don’t come in any other shade, but Jennifer realized that for this reason is why the public fell in love. The shade of pink was basically used as a persuasive mechanism to lure all of America. Price uses brash adjectives such as “sassy”, “hot”, and “flamboyant” all to describe this one tint. These words are used to entice and to better help her reader understand exactly what attracted to such an object.
A core entity that still affects people and all of today’s fads is what the “stars” had. If it’s somehow attainable, just about any and everyone attempts to get their hands on it. Although this was more so with the color pink, it all derived from the flamingo. Jennifer states the color pink was so popular it was on “washing machines, cars, and kitchen counters”. Even Elvis Presley’s pink Cadillac was decked out in the flamingo’s shade!
A final aspect of the flamingo’s magnetic affect was that the flamingo was held in reverence in many different religions and countries. From Egypt, to Mexico, to the Caribbean, the flamingo represents all sorts of things. It was used as an instrument of art, dance and even literature. Jennifer says, “Early Christians associated it with the red phoenix.” All these things found in this one bird!
In conclusion, Jennifer Price’s view of the United States is that the country is susceptible to obtain interest in objects that can be as unpretentious as a bird. Although this bird may appear vivid in color, symbolic of money, and even adorned by celebrities, the reasons only appear relevant because of how it is displayed. Because this country is so easy to fool, the flamingo will probably be just another fad that will return just as soon as past crazes have.