Ap Essay Pink Flamingos

Most people have noticed the occasional pink flamingo on a yard or theme to some building but most are unaware of how deeply ingrained this icon is to America. The pink flamingo is one of the many forgotten fads that American have gone through. Jennifer Price gives a quick history about how the flamingo came on the scene and what it meant to the American people. The trend of pink flamingoes in the mid 1900’s shows how American people go through the cycle of overusing symbols that represent success and wealth until they become yet another plain and mundane object that hold now value. There is a specific social and aesthetic reason why pink flamingos were so popular in the 1930’s to 1950’s. The cause for Americans to choose such a bold symbol was directly related to the time period. It all started in the great depression where Americans needed something that would take them out of the poverty stricken mindset. Stating that the flamingo made claims to “boldness” shows that the people sought this image. As well as bold, Price states that it became “synonymous with wealth and pizzaz” which shows that Americans had the superficial desire to look and feel like they were part of a more elite social class. The bird related words such as “flocking” shows that when there is a new fad, the consumers all conform and follow the norm. Once the flamingos were established as popular, it was then time for the upper class business men to earn a profit. This proves the reality that Americans are true capitalists, where everything comes back to making a profit. To further milk the society for its money, the companies drew a more apparent connection between flamingos and leisure, “...flamingos inscribed one’s lawn emphatically with Florida’s cachet of leisure and extravagance...” United States culture is known for draining the public dry and using every part of the money making potential by making the product more and more available to the lower classes because of their desire to