The Flamingo and the American Culture Is not the American Culture just beautiful? Well, not everybody thinks the same. Jennifer Price tells the story of the plastic flamingo as she established her view of the American Culture. Price uses her tone, vivid diction and clear examples to say that Americans are arrogant, hypocrite, and envious. First, she describes the American culture as being arrogant and cocky in an imprudent manner. Price says that Americans all over the country gave a meaning of wealth to an animal that sits on the grass. Americans believed that because they had these souvenir, which they obtain from Florida, they were over every other family around the neighborhood. Also, she states that they made the plastic animal, which is already brighter than its surroundings, way hotter than the real one (Price). The animal already stands out very well by itself with its natural color, but they wanted it to stand out even more in their yards, by increasing the color, just to call attention. …show more content…
Price says that in the late 1800s Americans hunt the flamingo for food and plumes. This cause the flamingo extinction in Florida. After this, about a century later they start using the image of a flamingo to earn profits and get a better image. They did not care that they were the main cause of the extinction of this animal because they were being driven by their greed. Then, in another paragraph she says that other cultures have always seen the flamingo as “special” like Christians who associated whit the red phoenix (Price). Still, Americans without knowing just use it to create envy among
The author Justin Angle says how in a study the mascots and names were shown to people unfamiliar with Native American culture and the sport teams, in the end of the study most of the participants viewed Native American’s as “war like”, which can carry negative consequences in the real world affecting the views of some future employers, creating a view that though Native American’s can be seen as strong and bold they can also have been perceived as violent and irrational. The uses of Redskins also create the belief that it is culturally appropriate for the constant use of Native American culture this has led to thousands of schools and sports teams to have questionable mascots and names. Such as the Savages from Salmon High school and the baseball team the “Indians” whose mascot was a hooked nose red skinned Indian with bucked teeth. Comparing this to the now frowned upon depiction of African American as black red lipped stereotyped popular in the 1920s advertisements does it not show similarities in a cultures becoming a caricature. While one is view as racist the other is view and honorable due to it representing one of the greatest passtimes in America,
They lead to the demolishment of the use of the flamingo. The Americans altered the bird to how they saw it and to the best of their ability. It was used for many things which led to the overuse of it. We can compare this to how in Florida they were driven to extinction for their elegant plumes and edible meat. We can also see that the American culture changed things that previous cultures established. We knew it as a red phoenix, ancient Egyptians saw it as their sun god Ra, and in Southern American places it is art, dance, and literature. These things were all previously established, but then came the Americans who changed it, overused it, then killed
The documentary, Lost Sparrow, is a very compelling production of one man’s quest to not only help his family deal with some of the trauma’s they had long been suffering from, it was also created to tell the story and hopefully shed some light on the conflicting story of the disappearance and death of his Native American adoptive brothers, Bobby and Tyler. Initially my overall takeaway from this documentary was a mixture of curiosity which quickly turned into confusion. “How did the boys (Bobby and Tyler) end up on the tracks?” and “Why were they running away in the first place?” were two questions that confused, lead me to be curious, and slightly suspicious very early in the viewing. Upon initial completion of the documentary my sole thought
Watters, Ethan. Crazy Like Us: the globalization of the American psyche. New York: Free Press, 2010. Print.
"This was a little ironic, since Americans had hunted flamingos to extinction in Florida" (Price lines 13-14). Price may be putting down American because Americans tend to follow the crowd and copy what everyone else is doing. The flamingo could be a metaphor of how Americans are followers and do not come up with their own ideas. The plastic pink flamingo gave an "extra fillip of boldness" (Price line 20). The flamingo was a way for Americans to stand out in the crowd and be noticed. Americans were flashy, cocky, and maybe even a little bit conceited.
Why is it no one complained about P. Diddy and Nelly presenting the United States as a country that prizes a fur coat above all else? Having lived in Europe, where topless beaches are normal, I can assure you that the obsessive displays of material wealth by America’s pop icons made more of an impression on foreigners than the sudden, visual declaration that Janet Jackson owns a breast.
...nsumerism. The metaphor of “rivers of bright merchandise” gives an image of modern day consumerism because they reader can think of a river of just stuff that is not essential to life, this can also be interpreted as a nightmare. The metaphor continues by placing people below suffering beneath the deep piles (waters) of merchandise that drowns today’s culture. Those people are the once who only think about what they want, but not on what they needed. Then there are people that are floating along or “staying afloat” and do not be consumed by materialistic items.
A Different Mirror drives the question Who is American? America is a melting pot of culture, but many only see as White. Takai writes, “Within the lifetime of young people today, Americans of European
this issue of discrimination, and I agree with all of his various claims about insiders and
Pop culture in the 1950s and 1960s began to spread and infest the nation from front to back through radio shows, books and magazines, television programs, and even motion pictures. Whether it is culture in terms of political affairs, clothing or the latest musical sensations, the United States has always played the dominant role when it came to who knows what is best, first. Some cases of Americanizati...
Cowboys and Indians is the popular game played by many children played as a game of heroes and villains. Natives are villainized in American pop culture due to the history being told by educational institutions across the nation. There are not many positive roles popular in the media about Native Americans. Many roles are even played by white people. The costume representation is not accurate either. The disrespect towards them is especially seem on Halloween, when people dress as Natives in cute and sexy ways that they think represent their culture. War paint, beads, feathers and headdresses are ceremonial accessories that represent their culture, it not a fun costume to wear. Only if they are being criticized and ridiculed, like they have been in the past. Racism has also been a huge problem when it comes to using creative names for sports teams, like the Redskins for example. Redskin is a derogatory and offensive term towards Native Americans and many white people do not see it as wrong due to the privilege they inherited throughout history. The disrespect towards them has grown and today it seems that if Natives were not getting ridiculed, they are for the most part ignored. The concerns that King describes in his book explains how the past has wired Americans to believing everything they have once learned. White people
Marcus Garvey said, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” (Vinod, 2013, p. 358). According to (Cole, 1986) Culture is “a people’s patterns of behavior; the totality of values, ideas and means by which a people deals with its geographical, social, political and economic environment” It is considered as way of life adopted and exercised over a given period of time some bordering to centuries. Different communities have different cultures which are essential in assigning each of these communities an identity. With globalization and modern trends, cultures have been shared among countries leading to determination of newer cultural practices corresponding to the society in question. Cultures give rise to behaviorism and inform the social relations among people and countries. Cultural pundits have argued that the Bahamian culture and the American culture are highly similar and related in terms of dialects, beliefs and values. However, major differences in language, religion and traditions show that the Bahamian and American cultures are more different than many people believe.
In “This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona,” Alexie creates a story that captures the common stereotypes of Native Americans. For instance, in the story the narrator states, “Who does have money on a reservation, except the cigarette and fireworks salespeople?” (Alexie). This quotation shows that the narrator addresses the idea that all Native Americans must own businesses that sell fireworks and/ or cigarettes in order to be successful. In this example, Victor is shown to not identify with the Native Americans because he does not pursue the same job opportunities as many Native Americans do. Victor's character is used as a contrast to the stereotypes that , there he represents reality. Another instance in which the author incorporates a stereotype about Native Americans is when Thomas-Builds-the-Fire first makes conversation with Victor. Thomas-Builds-the-Fire informs Victor about the news of Victor's ...
In the story The Arrangers of Marriage a couple moves into an apartment in America; they thought the house was not as nice as they pictured. The narrator of this story stated that the newlywed couple pictured their house to be like the one’s in the “American films” (167). This shows me that other countries only see the nice housing that we have in America, but what they don’t realize until they arrive is that most houses are not as nice as the one’s on the television. This story shows many ways in which the woman from Lagos has to learn the American culture, and get used to her new husband and new lifestyle. The narrator displays a situation where the Lagos woman does not realize that Americans drink their tea without milk (171).
Coming to America, by far was not what I expected. However, after living here for four years, I have learned to adjust to the surroundings. I was not mentally prepared for the culture change that I was exposed to in the beginning but as days turned into months and eventually into years, I realized that I grew accustomed to the culture and eventually became a part of it. I have gotten accustomed to calculating distance by miles and not kilometers, temperatures by Fahrenheit not Celsius, weight by pounds not kilograms. I have also been influenced to see beauty in different content unlike home where thick women are considered beautiful, healthy and happily married unlike here where everyone is trying to lose weight to enhance their beauty and health. However, not even a decade in America can make me forget the extremes I experienced when I first arrived.