Pink Plastic Flamingo!

     Too much information roams around the vast field of knowledge, and this very fact, often, forces one to face a hard time in discriminating what is important from what is not. Yet someone needs to distinguish the significant from the dull, which is a painstakingly difficult operation indeed. Jennifer Price, the author of The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History, could have been just another writer barely touching upon the issue and sinking into the sea of boring, less-meaningful facts. However, she truly employs her great choice of vocabularies, quality set of examples, and ept use of contradiction in order to reveal what is so prominent in her view of the United States history.

      While a book may contain a word of thorough and deep ideas, it may not be regarded meaningful without it being pronounced eloquently with the appropriate words. Jennifer Price’s writing, in such terms, is an epitome of how an excellent selection of vocabularies can contribute in improving the general quality of the work and letting the main idea of it be articulated properly. As soon as the reader is plunged into the pool of writing, he or she will encounter powerful words such as “splashed” and “boldness.” Even with these two simple words, the writer creates a general theme that plastic flamingos represent the fortitude to display that the Americans of the 1950s retained. Yet her words go deeper, not just halting at setting the backgrounds. She further exploits her diction to explain why, in detail, the plastic flamingo is an important part of U.S. history. Her analogies of the plastic flamingo to “wealth and pizzazz,” and a sign of “wealth and extravagance” reveal that this kitschy ornament was not a display of bravado, but an exhibition of the U.S. citizen’s improved economic status during the 1950s. Her further arsenal of words she employs succeeds in formulating an idea about the wealth, and the lifestyle consequent to that wealth, of the Americans of the 1950s.

     A theory without proper support is merely a stubborn argument. Likewise, a historical statement without proper examples is simply a void – and often, “unhealthy” to the logics of the people – assertion. The writing of Price however, is filled with the choice selection of examples. In creating the general idea for the passage, Price uses instances that do not trouble the development of her logic. There indeed were pessimistic views about the plastic flamingos. For instance, today, some of the states in America banned the installation of these flashy, inanimate objects in their citizens’ lawns. Yet Price selectively decides on the examples that she will employ, instead of using all the cases that are given. In describing the reason why the “flamingos” were important, she uses the examples of Miami’s successful grand hotel, the Flamingo, and the fact that the bird stands out in its environment to imbue the passage with the idea that this bird displayed and symbolized not only the striking appearance but also the general wealthy concept. Furthermore, in describing the color pink’s significance, she beautifully uses the trend of the period that such color was popular and not outdated. She emphatically pounds down her notion by presenting the example that Elvis Presley even bought a pink Cadillac. The additional examples shown in the final paragraph are simply awesome in its status that they add to the general positive image of the plastic flamingos.

     Yet the most intriguing rhetorical device she domineers at her command to grapple the readers’ attention and to reveal her main idea is the usage of contradiction. The contradictions in Price’s writing truly serve as great impacts in overall. The first contradiction she employs is the usage of irony in the fact that the flamingos were largely hunted down. Like the author mentions, the fact that such a broadly praised representative of 1950s’ American sentiment was shot down ruthlessly for its plume and meat may not make sense. Yet, she glosses over this fact and continues, as if the contradiction is meaningless. Despite this, a careful observer may find that the contradiction serves two purposes. While the first – to grab the readers’ attention – is obvious, the second one is tough: it is to emphatically mention that the newly imbued image of flamingos was strong enough to override the seeming irony of the situation. The second contradiction she employs is located in the final paragraph, in her mention of the reason why people call flamingos “pink flamingos” as if they could be any other color. This situational irony, too, is important in emphasizing in the fact that the color pink is effective and impacting enough to influence its surroundings. One could remark that the contradictions Price exploit blends well with the rest to create a wholesome thesis.

     In summation, the aforementioned explanations express how Jennifer Price effectively used her diction, choice of examples, and usage of contradiction to reveal and develop her overall intention. Unlike many dull writings, her writing commands the eloquent arsenal of different rhetorical devices to the zenith level, not only impressing the readers but also allowing the crowd to understand her point.