Step 2: Come up with rhetorical strategies that you think are most crucial in helping Price make her views clear. This step was challenging for many students because there are not many obvious rhetorical devices. The best answers included something along the lines of the following: Something about her humor. The puns are a good example of this almost whimsical tone (Line 1: splashed in the or line had been “The pink flamingo fifties” 4: “Americans flocking to or even the title: Plastic Pink Flamingo: a Natural Florida” “The History.”) You can even pick up some of the humor in her use of italics (Lines 2-3: it was a “First, and later in line the flamingo was or in questions like Line flamingo,” pink.”), 30: “And 46-47: the if they could be blue or “Why, after all, call birds ‘pink flamingos’—as the rather ridiculous final line of the excerpt. All of the humor goes to green?”) Or soften the social criticism, and makes the piece more of a playfully mocking bit of observation. The kind of fake anthropological tone she takes on, which has on the surface this rather silly examination of the rise of the plastic pink flamingo, but underneath traces with slightly more seriousness the simultaneous rise of consumerism/materialism in the US. Good Sample Thesis: Jennifer playful puns and whimsical tone soften her underlying Price’s criticism of 1950s materialism in this excerpt from Plastic Pink Flamingo: a Natural “The History.”
Step 2: Come up with rhetorical strategies that you think are most crucial in helping Price make her views clear. This step was challenging for many students because there are not many obvious rhetorical devices. The best answers included something along the lines of the following: Something about her humor. The puns are a good example of this almost whimsical tone (Line 1: “The pink flamingo splashed in the fifties” or line 4: “Americans had been flocking to Florida” or even the title: “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: a Natural History.”) You can even pick up some of the humor in her use of italics (Lines 2-3: “First, it was a flamingo,” and later in line 30: “And the flamingo was pink.”), or in questions like Line 46-47: “Why, after all, call the birds ‘pink flamingos’—as if they could be blue or green?”) Or the rather ridiculous final line of the excerpt. All of the humor goes to soften the social criticism, and makes the piece more of a playfully mocking bit of observation. The kind of fake anthropological tone she takes on, which has on the surface this rather silly examination of the rise of the plastic pink flamingo, but underneath traces with slightly more seriousness the simultaneous rise of consumerism/materialism in the US. Good Sample Thesis: Jennifer Price’s playful puns and whimsical tone soften her underlying criticism of 1950s materialism in this excerpt from “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: a Natural History.”
Practice%20Rhetorical%20Analysis%20Prompts%20with%20Commentary.docx