Dumpster Diving Lars Eighner’s book, “Travels with Lizbeth”, was published in 1993. It is a memoir of his experience being homeless. Eighner uses the appeal of ethos the most prominently in his book to prove he is credible, followed by an appeal to logos by applying logic and pathos using stories.
According to the essay, “The Appeals: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos”, the audience is persuaded on, “Our perception of a speaker or writer’s character influences.” Also known as ethos. Eighner’s most noticeable persuasive appeal is ethos. He does not ask for the audience to pity him and his lifestyle because he writes that Dumpster diving is, “a sound and honorable niche.” Eighner truly believes that his lifestyle is a valuable, and he should not
…show more content…
He writes, “Although I hope to get off the streets so that Lizabeth can have a long and comfortable old age, I know this hope is not very realistic.” (60) We pity the lack of a home with its warmth and familiarity for both the author and his dog. Even though we can see he does not mind being homeless and Dumpster diving, there is still a sense of emptiness that comes to mind. We pity those who are homeless because there is usually a negative connotation with being homeless. They were laid off, they have an addiction, or they are mentally unstable. Regardless of the fact that the readers’ know this is not the case, there is still the notion that people are deserving of things unless they have truly done something to not deserve it. Eighner continues with, “The things I find in the Dumpsters, the love letters and ragdolls of so many lives, remind me of this lesson.” (75) The full context of the quote, is that nothing is really permanent. The author knows that harboring things while homeless is pointless because he has, “Lost everything but the clothes I was wearing and Lizabeth.” (75) He can not really hold sentiment to objects considering he’s constantly on the move. While Eighner is not asking the audience to feel sad by these stories, the audience is still moved. It might even remind the readers of a time that they threw a treasured possession away. Eighner ends his paper
Padilla 3 with a solid and single line. He writes, “I am sorry for them.” (77) This sole
Lars Eighner represents the thousands of homeless people that have simply fallen victim of financial struggles, holding strongly onto his respect for others, his community, and himself, despite the difficulties he faces. According to Eighner’s website, he spent time at the University of Austin, Texas studying creative writing, which is clear through his writing techniques and narrative style. However after falling on hard times, Eighner ended up homeless. While homeless in the late 80’s Eighner composed the essay “On Dumpster Diving.” It need not take long for one to find his purpose in writing the essay. Dumpster diving and homelessness are deeply connected to a notion of poor life choices, mental illness, and substance abuse. And while Eighner doesn’t deny that many people he encounters are “winos,” Eighner’s purpose is to represent dumpster diving, in sense, as an art; reclaiming homelessness as “a modern form of self reliance.”
It is important to mention that being homeless in the USA is tightly connected with confrontation not only with people around, but also with uneasy mental challenges about the explanation of existence and self-esteem. The article encompasses the negative attitudes and reactions homeless people face every day, as well as it gives the reader some kind of positive perspective of the situation. Once in a while, the roofless see acts of kindness toward them. According to the statistical data provided in the article, that process reaches its climax during the Thanksgiving and Christmas time. Nevertheless, the homeless are constantly up against the problem of existential purposes and intentions either by knocking together causal
In Lars Eighner’s short essay “On Dumpster Diving”, he describes his experience of being homeless and the art of dumpster driving. Eighner prefers being referred to as a scavenger rather than a dumpster driver. Eighner stated “I like the frankness of the word scavenging. I live from refuse of others. I am a scavenger.” (383) He describes scavenging as a full time job, that requires a lot of effort. He believes that if one follows certain guidelines and rules, with doing so this could possibly help one to become efficient. One rule is knowing good place and time to look for food and other items, that could be useful. Another rule is knowing how to eat safely from a dumpster . Eighner said
In today’s society, there is an abundance of waste. This is clear in observing how people live, we often throw out items because we want something better. Lars Eighner, author of "On Dumpster Diving," writes about his experiences being homeless and how he survived on the waste of others. This provides insight on how the phrase "one man's trash is another man's treasure," is true. Jeremy Seifert, who directed the documentary Dive!, also talks about how he survives off of other people's waste, but this was a decision he made. As they tell of their experiences, Seifert and Eighner both come to the conclusion that society is wasteful. While both individuals provided good information, I believe Seifert presented the better argument. Both of
Yesterday I threw out an old jar of peanut butter with only about an inch left. It no longer served a purpose, as I had purchased a new and improved jar. As I began to toss the jar towards the garbage, I was reminded of an essay I had just read. In his essay Dumpster Diving, Lars Eighner suggests that when we throw away items, homeless people can find a way to make use out of whatever it is. Therefore, if we don't want there to be bums on the street, it is inferred that we shouldn't throw anything extra out. I myself was not supporting the homeless community, or being wasteful, I was just trying to make room in the cabinet. If I would have kept that inch of peanut butter, it wouldn't have made the world's population of homeless people try
In the essay “On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner, Eighner talks about materialism and wealth. He explains his process of dumpster diving and the best places to go to dumpster dive. Eighner incorporates tone, detail, irony, observation, and ethos throughout his essay.
Why do you think Eighner chose not to provide much background about his life- his upbringing, education, or work history- before he became homeless? Do you think this decision was a wise one? How might such information (for example, any of the details in the headnote that precedes the essay) have changed readers' reactions to his discussion?
The Box Man is an essay written by Barbara Ascher that addresses and criticizes how American society does not give homeless people the respect they deserve. In the essay, Ascher describes a night of the life of an average homeless man. Ascher accomplishes this by using her character the Box Man to represent the homeless people of America and to display how society sees the homeless. Barbara Ascher’s The Box Man utilizes thoughtfully chosen diction, precise negative and positive imagery, and effectively placed tone shifts to argue that the homeless, represented by the Box Man, are worthy of respect.
This is what became into his article. Eighner and his dog became homeless again when a teaching position fell through and there was no income for him to pay for his apartment. He currently lives in a small apartment in Austin and now supports himself by writing short stories and essays. It is nice to see he made something of himself and didn’t have to live on the streets and longer than he had to.
This essay is written in the first-person format. The author has used personal interesting stories to build a relationship with his readers. Hence, the use of personal pronoun ‘I’ in the entire text. For instance, he says, “I began Dumpster diving about a year before I became homeless” (Cite). Additionally, Eighner has made use of ethos as a persuasive tool. He informs the audience about his life before his present situation. He was a government employee in a health facility (Cite). The story is also an accurate interpretation of his experience, which gives his story a great deal of credibility.
“My Daily Dives in the Dumpster” by Lars Eighner is about a homeless person, explaining the strategies of surviving from dumpster. The narrator began “dumpster diving about a year before became a homeless” (114). The author explains how at first he felt ashamed of being through trash. “Everything seems to stink” (115).This stage passes with experience and he realized that most disposed items are valuable and can be reused. Eighner feels bad for all those rich people who waste a lot of items that may be valuable to others.
A) A contemporary problem raised in “On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner Is the amount of wealth spent by consumers, and the effect of that. Consumers spend too much money and waste even more when they throw food and clothing away. In the essay he explains the way of life as an scavenger and how to demonstrate how people are able to live by the minimal resources although most consumers continue to buy things they do not need and continue to waste resources that may be valuable to others. Aside from food, he additionally describes the emotional impact that living out of a dumpster can have on a person. He describes finding sad things such as "abandoned teddy bears, shredded wedding books, and pets lying in state." Seeing the pets makes him think about his dog Lizbeth and how she is likely to end up with a dumpster as her final resting place, as Eighner does not see himself having a place for her before she passes on. Rummaging causes Eighner to consider how much individuals underestimate, including the way that they can purchase something new to replace something old that they have discarded. He feels frustrated because of the individuals who don 't have that extravagance.
Lars Eighner wrote an essay about how it is to live on the streets and his life as a “dumpster diver.” Some people regard homeless people as lazy, poor, or unstable. Lars is an educated person who just happened on rough times. He cataloged some of his adventures going through other people’s trash. He states “once I was the sort of person who invests in material objects with sentimental value. Now I no longer have those things, but I have the sentiments yet.” To me this sentence means I have lived this way once and now have learned to understand and adapt to a new way of doing things because of my experiences. Once you are able to understand a new way of living, you can be more open to new ways of living or the way others live around
Ms. Blanton discusses the time that she was homeless. She became suicidal and wanted to kill herself. She lived inside a van in a parking lot, but she was also a writer. She began to receive recognition and became a working writer.
One of the needs or concerns that the homeless person on G street faced is the lack of sleeping arrangement. Therefore, lead them to sleeping in an unsafe environment but also under bad weather. Since the tents are not protected them from the rain. It’s a concern because they have to go roaming the streets wondering if they have a safe place to sleep. It seems that their basic need is not met since that they lack sleeping arrangements. Even though they lack sleeping arrangements, they have shown strength in their current circumstances. Such as, how strong they struggle to go through every day to survive. No one really knows what it’s like to struggle, really struggle to survive in an environment that they are currently are in. They know what it’s like to go hungry and sleep in a dangerous environment. Where the homeless people come from they could have learned not to care, get their hopes up, but instead they don’t by surviving every day in a harsh environment but also from the societies’ perception on them. Homelessness is real.