Summary Of On Dumpster Diving

The people working on the waste fields “the pickers” are people like any of us. VIk Muniz mentioned that he identified with them because many of them were born in the same or even better situation than him (lower middle class), but didn’t were as lucky so they end up in the trash fields.

Lars Eighner wrote the passage, Dumpster Diving. The essay describes his life as a dumpster diver. Eighner used rhetorical strategies to introduce his subject and description of these examples will be stated below. Throughout the essay he uses various rhetorical strategies to convey his subject, such as ethos, pathos, and logos.

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

The tone of “On Dumpster Diving” is straightforward. In the beginning of Eighner’s essay, he goes straight into talking about dumpster diving, and he does not beat around the bush. For example, in the beginning of his essay, Eighner says, “Long before I began Dumpster diving I was impressed with Dumpsters, enough so that I wrote the Merriam-Webster research service to discover what I could about the word “Dumpster,”’’ (p 1). Eighner describes dumpster diving as his profession. Eighner says, “Eating safely from the Dumpsters involves three principles: using the senses and common sense to evaluate the condition of the found materials, knowing the Dumpsters of a given area and checking them regularly, and seeking always the question “Why was this discarded?”” (p 10).

Eighner’s main point of this essay was to contend that Dumpster diving is a somewhat viable means of living for some, but the human tendency of overvaluing sentimental items can get in the way. His SMB statement would be, “While frowned upon by some, Dumpster diving provides certain commodities of life for individuals with enough will; however, individuals must stress the importance of each item they acquire as opposed to the perceived value.”

What caught my attention while reading this profile is, not only did someone make the conscious decision to live in a dumpster but that someone is a dean and professor of a University. I found his dumpster living profile interesting for many reasons. This is a person who could afford an apartment or a house, yet they chose to live in a dumpster. Another interesting point that drew me in was that he didn’t immediately renovate the dumpster to make himself comfortable. He was “dumpster camping” as he called it, slept on cardboard, no heating or cooling unit, and without electricity or water running to the dumpster. He’s slowly customizing his space, he’s added an AC unit, installed a false floor, an air mattress and added some decorations.

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.

The author has also made intentional attempts to persuade the audience through the use of logical statements backed up by evidence. Eighner has started the essay by introducing how he viewed dumpsters as valuable objects. He then gives reasons why he is depending on dumpsters for his food. Being out of the workforce, he had no means of acquiring meals. He thus seeks refuge to the dump sites to get what he described as discarded and perfectly good food items. To support his position, Eighner informs his audience that this decision followed his inability to buy food as the little money he had was used to pay rent. He writes, “I put almost all my sporadic income into rent. The necessities of daily life I began to extract from Dumpsters” (Cite). Hence, he is able to convince the audience that his actions were as a result of saving money for rent.

The tone is portrayed throughout the story by the use of personal examples of Eighner's time having to dumpster dive. Eighner explains the effects dumpster diving made on his life and how it changed him to be the person he has become, “Once I was the sort of person who invests materials objects with sentimental value. Now I no longer have those things, but I have the sentiments” (94). Eighner reflects the tone through this quote by explaining how he used to be the type of person that would “invest” in material objects, but has transfigured to a man who does not care what the price of something is. The tone shown by Eighner clarifying how dumpster diving changed him for the better. Equally as important, Eighner continues to explain how dumpster

Barbara Ehrenreich’s, “Serving in Florida” and Lars Eighner, “On Dumpster Diving” are both essays that share common similarities, but one similarity, in particular, is the overall focus on sharing the story of the homeless or poor American in American society today.

In his essay, "On Dumpster Diving", Lars Eighner speaks of his time spent as a homeless man. Eighner states in detail the steps needed in order to successfully become a scavenger of dumpsters based on his own experiences. Though the essay could appear to just be a useful manual there is an underlying message. Lars Eighner effectively uses argumentation, process analysis, and tone to demonstrate that society is wasteful.

“On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner he gives us an autobiographical account of his life and how he was homeless after he lost his job as an attendant in Austin, Texas’s state hospital. The story begins to focus on Eighner’s experiences of scavenging through dumpsters for food because people waste food and he does not have any to eat. He begins his argument and tells us how he was always fascinated by dumpsters and said: “long before I began Dumpster diving I was impressed with Dumpsters” (Eighner 2013). As I began to read this article I was disgusted that a man could eat out of the trash can.

In America, while homelessness and poverty runs rampant, while war veterans and Phds find themselves on the streets, while the price of living and the ability to find food for America’s poorest grows ever more difficult, we, as a culture, still look upon practices like dumpster diving as disgusting and believe them to be only practiced by the lowest and most uneducated of American society. This is no longer a practical image of the practice or the people behind it. As poverty is ever prevalent in the United States, many are forced to find food outside of conventional needs, especially in a culture that exceedingly devalues assistance to the poor. Simultaneously, with rampant consumerism and our propensity to throw

“On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner is an eye opening piece, which shows how even the most minimally simplistic lifestyle can have a sense of home. While many people do not see life as meaningful without riches, Eighner shows us otherwise. In effect, Eighner gives me a different perspective on how much our society takes for granted by having a first person view, seeing the arrogance of our actions, and noticing a pleasant life does not have to include riches. Seeing it from the other side of the spectrum, I have come to realize the disappointing fact that while it may seem that we do not realize how wasteful we are, there are people with need desperately needing and looking for our squandered goods. With Eighner showing us this lifestyle through his eyes, it gives me a deeper understanding of dumpster diving.

Everyone has heard that age-old adage in one place or another: one man's trash is another man's treasure. For instance, I could ramble for 300 words about how lovely I find the smell of peaches in summer, or how there’s nothing like that cleansing scent that comes after a Colorado rainstorm. But to me, they’re just another perfume on the breeze. To me, nothing is more dear than the stench of a horse barn.