Pink Plastic Flamingos

AP English Practice Question
question site (page 2)

Drive down any 1950’s suburban street and what do you see? House upon house that looks exactly the same as the last one. Housewives vacuuming in heels and pearls while their husbands are away, hard at work. Middle-class families with a house, a car, a dog, and 2.3 kids. And lawn after cookie-cutter lawn with a pink flamingo. This apparent fascination is entertainingly explored in Jennifer Price’s essay “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History.”
First, Price explains a brief history of why the popular fixture is a flamingo. By relating to the Flamingo, an extravagant hotel in Miami, and the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, two well-known attractions of the time, the pink plastic flamingos are a sign of wealth and excess. In addition to these associations, Price uses the words “pizzazz,” “bold,” “leisure,” “flamboyant,” “flashy,” and “forward-looking” to describe the ornaments, reflecting the opinions of the time. But why are these attributes admirable? As Price concludes, “The hues were forward-looking rather than old-fashioned, just right for a generation, raised in the Depression, that was ready to celebrate its new affluence.”
Tired of growing up rationing, the avid society is eager to spend. And what better way to exhibit this fun, playful new outlook than to spend on something, not only as bright as your future looks, but that also represents the laid-back lifestyle of the rich and famous in such places as Florida, Las Vegas, and Hollywood? Americans ready to make a name for themselves related the boldness of the pink plastic flamingo to the excitement of a new life of freedom.
The neon trend didn’t stop at the front door, either. Tom Wolfe’s “new electrochemical pastels of the Florida littoral” were the theme of the house, extending from the passion pink kitchen counters, to the tangerine bathroom tiles, to the pistachio washing machines. As Price divulges, the pink plastic flamingo could have been any bright color, it merely touched on the energy of the country.
As with any trend, the pink plastic flamingo exhibited the flamboyancy of a new generation. Much like computer use today shows the advances in our technological exploits, the pink plastic flamingo showed the avarice and excitement of the 1950’s and the desire of everyday Americans to differentiate themselves from their parents.

Pink plastic flamingos rock. I'm trying to get a fundraiser going at our school for next year where people can buy an anonymous pink flamingo to stick on someone's locker. Do you think people would actually but them? Cuz I have heard of it working really well with buying pick plastic flamingo lawn ornaments.