Dumpster Diving

“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.

In the esteemed collection 50 Essays, the editors recognize Lars Eighner’s On Dumpster Diving through his capability of heightening the degree and compelling concept of dumpster diving etiquette. Eighner redefines words such as “Dumpster,” by making it its own proper noun, which brings a sense of formality. He cajoles the reader’s perspective towards Dumpster diving in a positive outlook by referring it as an art and that it’s not anomalous for “respectable employed people...find something tempting sticking out of a dumpster” and “brag that they found this or that piece of trash” (108). Eighner exposes the audience the truth behind homelessness; however he also depicts that not all homeless people are winos causing trouble in the neighborhood,

In “ On Dumpster Diving” Lars Eighner he tries to convey a message when he tells us a story about this person and how he became homeless . The context in which he writes is that he writes in a dark place where there hardly seem to be any hope and that was the tone for their entire story. But he tries to leave clues in the story to see if you pick up on and foreshadow something big about life in general. Eighner is writing from a place where everyone can feel empathy for his character and form a special bond. In today's world there are a lot of people that goes through this problem which really appeals to the reader and they can understand the situation fully and make a connection with the text. I think the audience is people that are going through a tough time it could be that they are losing their

“On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner is a collective work on the issue of Dumpster Diving, in which Eighner depicts his own adventures as a “Diver.” His development of the central contention, this “way of life” is not as it is portrayed or stigmatized, is progressed through Eighner’s inclusion of the three persuasive appeals: pathos, logos, and ethos. These three devices coupled with other rhetorical devices provide an alluring argument, in which the reader sees the other side through a new lens, and their opinions on this issue is vastly differed, upon completion of the reading.

Lars Eighner was an average successful man in the 1960s until one day, his life took a turn for the worst. Eighner became homeless after losing his job and he stayed homeless for the next three years of his life. On Dumpster Diving is his account of being homeless and how in order to survive, he had to partake in dumpster diving. When hearing the word, dumpster, any person's first thought is most likely to be of the pungent smell and revolting things that may be lurking inside the big metal beast. Eighner uses many different rhetorical strategies when introducing his viewpoint, on dumpsters, to the audience. He gives us the insider’s view in the life of a homeless, dumpster diver, through his own experience. The life of a scavenger and their ability to survive, along with the wasted resources in American economies, are the main subjects within this piece. Eighner uses ethos, logos, and pathos to introduce this to the audience.

Dumpster Diving is an essay written by Lars Eighner. The Texan and former homeless man who roamed the streets searching for food from unpleasant sites in order to help him survive the harsh times. His loss of income made him to get food from garbage sites, which he refers to as ‘Dumpster’ He wrote this essay to express his experience as a homeless and destitute person. The essay gives a detailed explanation of how people like him struggle to get food from dump sites and the dangers they face. Eighner used basic English to describe the process of scavenging and its consequences in the essay.

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

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.

A feeling readily distinguishable for Charlie, who became scarred off his reflective experience in the library. This purposelessness is apparent in a moment in our lives where we are short of ideas with what do with it. Associable with Charlie’s reaction on reading the horrific atrocities committed by people like Edgar Cooke notorious for his unreasonable, random, ruthless murder of people. And of Sylvia Likens, who is inhumanely abused like being, “made to live in the cellar with the dogs.” Page 111. Apart from Charlie, how would you have feel hearing that? Doesn’t that flame of resignation burn within you? Well, it clearly did for Charlie who suddenly experiences a surge of uncertainty and ponders to himself,”I don’t know what to do with myself... I wish you could unknow all I’ve learned. “ Charlies’s pondering could be considered Silvey’s warning to us the audience of these depressive moments postponed for us. Unfortunately, many of us have remained under the radar of Silvey’s notice. With over 13.3% of youth unemployed, according to Trading Economies. These are people like us aged 18-25 years whose has been denied a future motion into life, serving as an obstacle to their desires of prosperity. A denied prosperity forces both us, the readers and Charlie into a state of, “I don’t know what to

Homelessness is a social crisis that has stayed with us throughout our history. There was an increase in the number of homeless people in the 1980s due to housing and social service cuts increasing. In Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg’s, “Righteous Dopefiend,” being homeless is just one of the many problems that encompass their day to day reality. The two anthropologists assimilate themselves in the homeless community and observe the hardships that come from living on the streets and drug addiction. A better understanding is attained through their ethnographic research and details of the homeless’ lives can be used to further our knowledge and help in solving society’s problems. This ethnography shows

Eighner himself has lived on the streets as a homeless man. He allows the reader to join him in his own personal life stories in order to show the severity of his past situation. Eighner tells of the embarrassment and shame that comes from scavenging through trash to stay alive. He writes of the woeful feelings that a homeless person possesses in their time of wander. “He can wipe the egg yolk off the found can, but he cannot erase the stigma of eating garbage out of his mind” (Eighner 144). With much passion, he speaks of the homeless as victims of a undeserved life. However, according to Linderman, the life of a dumpster diver can be quite satisfying.

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.

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.”

Homelessness is a social problem that is prevalent around the world. Homelessness has existed for much of "civilized" human history. In the last two centuries, homelessness and changed and expanded. Sociologists who study and research homelessness have argued over its formal definition for decades, though for some, the definition of homelessness seems self explanatory and obvious. The paper will examine homelessness, particularly as a sociological issue, or a social issue seen from a sociological perspective. The paper will additionally reference sociological theory as a means of explanation for homelessness, such its causes, the demographics/populations, and other prominent known characteristics of homeless people. There are individuals and groups who choose to be, from a normative societal perspective, homeless, but for a great deal of the homeless population, it can be a treacherous and tragic lifestyle that is a result of a distinct set of social, societal, and individual factors.

Another way she engages with the reader is the story telling, where she goes from all the bad, all the thoughts, her worrying about it. To her refusing to become a stereotypical homeless person. “Luckily for me (and my dog!), I recently inherited a truck and travel trailer” (Entry. 1, L. 26) Here she uses the storytelling to tell how she was lucky enough to have a head start for becoming homeless by having a roof over her head. She also mentions her dog, because it adds a more personal connecting with the