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. 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). Throughout Eighner’s essay, Eighner incorporates detail. He explains how he hates to see food go to waste, which helps the reader understand that he is not a materialistic person. Eighner says, “I just hate to see food go to waste and so I eat much more than I should” (p 47). Eighner sees wealth as something many people take advantage of. For example, he says, “The student does not know that, and since it is Daddy’s money, the student decides not to take the chance,” (p 26). When Eighner says this statement, he means that students will waste perfectly good items, because it is not their money they are wasting. Students do not value money, and they do not see throwing away good items a bad thing. Eighner also incorporates irony throughout his essay. He says, “Between us are the rat-race millions who have confounded their selves with the objects they grasp and who nightly scavenge the cable channels looking for they know not what. I am sorry for them” (p 79-80). Eighner’s statement is ironic because he says he feels sorry for materialistic and wealthy people when typically they are sorry for him. Eighner is in a healthy state of mind and he feels sorry for the people who always feel
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
“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.
It feels that Eighner’s is writing this and telling his story is to show what it is to live in poverty, and how it is to survive. This article is a narrative because he is telling his story of survival. It is a guide for anyone that becomes in need of survival and has no other option. He definitely wanted to show his struggle in everyday living and he stresses that people shouldn’t take things for granted such as going to the store and being able to buy food that is thrown out if not eaten. Rich or poor he is trying to make a point that what we throw away everyday helps the less fortunate even if we don’t realize it. It shows how we throw things out that someone else could use and really need. His audience is the general public. Eighner’s tone is very sarcastic in times and he seems to not take his situation seriously. Which is good cause even in that living situation he can still smile and be happy. Shows what kind of person he is. He tries to give a mental picture of how
Throughout the essay, he uses his personal experiences to convey his thoughts on the practice of dumpster diving. Eighner uses this device to show the life lessons he has learned during this period in his life. He also uses it to explain to the general public that the mess which they associate with dumpster divers is not always the case. Eighner explains that there are two types of dumpster divers: polite rummagers who go through carefully, picking out what they want and leaving the rest for anyone else to use and can scroungers. Can scroungers, as Eighner explains, are usually drug addicts who dig recklessly, ruining the contents of dumpsters, and take only cans. By using his personal experiences, Eighner carefully explains that not all dumpster divers are bad, while also describing some of his personal hardships. This device was used successfully by Eighner to help get his point across to his
Summary and Response Essay “On Dumpster Diving” In the essay “On Dumpster Diving” Lars Eighner describes the wastefulness of Americans, how they view the poor, and how to stay safe while living the life of a scavenger. As he travels the streets with his companion Lizbeth he scavenges through dumpsters in search of the necessities of life. There are many people that are homeless in need of food.
Lars tells how he scavenges for the everyday items he needs. Unlike in “On Compassion” Lars does not get handouts from anyone he has to find it. Eighner sees a different side he fells the shame of people looking down on him, but he does not let it get to him. In “On Dumpster Diving” he tells of how students throw out canned goods, staples, papers, drugs, and spirits. (143) People throw out perfectly good things and he would find use for them. Eighner gives a guide on how to survive on the street, what to eat and how to pick the items. He gives a personal account of what it is like to live on the street. Lars story is influenced by the need to survive to the next
Success is a word with multiple meanings, it’s different for everyone. In Lars Eighner’s personal narrative “On Dumpster Diving”, he details his success on dumpster diving, which for him is surviving. He utilized what he learned from scavenging to avoid being a wasteful consumer, and he paints society as wasteful. Eighner uses his personal experiences to explain certain causes and effects in his final conclusion. The structure of Eighner's narrative is used to appeal to guilt and can be seen throughout.
Crafting their voices towards their attitudes on the discussion, the authors interest the reader to accept the topic. "I began Dumpster diving… before I became homeless." (Eighner, Pg. 23, ¶ 2) Eighner introduces himself as a prior dumpster diver to show that he understands what
The effect of Lars Eighner’s attention to language is that it catches the audience’s attention. His purpose is to inform the reader about his profession as a dumpster diver. Since he realizes the misconceptions his profession holds, he introduces it on a lighter, technical note. As a result, instead of disgusting the audience, he engrosses them. By saying unconventional statements like “I have never heard these things called anything but Dumpsters”(87), he slowly lures the audience’s attention. The effect of Lars Eighner’s attention to language in the first paragraphs was an appeal to ethos. He was not some average wino or hobo, but established himself to be a well-informed and intelligent author. His meticulousness and sophisticated curiosity
By using such a vivid vocabulary Saukko is able to exaggerate her main ideas by drawing in the reader's attention. At the beginning of the paper the author describes all of the harmful chemicals that are used to intoxicate the earth, and by doing this the reader is drawn to continue reading the paper because the author is coming from an educated standpoint. The exaggerated words also stress how harmful these chemicals really are to the earth’s well being and how powerful they are. Such a small amount of product can cause a great amount of damage, and this is shown by the colorful vocabulary of
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are one of the best days for consumers in America, because everything is on sale with an unbelievable low price. According to CNN Money, business made over 50 billion dollars in the year of 2013 after these special sales event in America. In these special occasions, people purchase product base on the recommendation of the media. When consumers realized that they have no use of the product or an improved new product releases, the old product will end up in a dumpster. Americans will create environmental problem and outbreak of resource war if they continue wasting Earth’s source base on their lavish lifestyle, in which it is supported by their culture and the lack of appreciation.
In the heartbreaking video of ‘MIDWAY- Message from gyre’ it gives viewers an outlook of what happens when trash is put in places it has no business being in. The species of the birds that are called albatrosses are an unfortunate example of this. In the Midway, North pacific ocean, trash from the Pacific Garbage Patch ends up at these islands habituated by the birds. In this video pictures show detailed evidence of the effects of carelessness and solid waste can have on a species. This video is a short film, but expresses a big concern.
Marine Environmental Ethics.-- Human actions show that our marine environmental ethics are less advanced than the ones we have on land (Stokstad, 2003). There are three main sources of evidence that prove this. The first is ocean dumping, or waste disposal into the ocean. Before 1972, it was believed the ocean had an “unlimited capacity to mix and disperse wastes” (Gunther, 2017). The ocean became a dumping ground for chemical and industrial wastes for decades, leading to severe consequences. Little attention was given to the negative impacts ocean dumping had on marine environments. While this also occurs on land, it is done on a much smaller scale. Another source of evidence for our lacking marine environmental ethics comes from the shortage
Many people in today’s world wouldn’t blink twice when seeing stray trash in Washington parks or beaches. There are even some who forget that they’ve left their own trash astray and leave their wrapper or soda can alone to float elsewhere. Much of this trash instead of being contained and thrown away, end up being swept away by the rain into sewers and into the Pacific Ocean. More attention should be brought towards the importance of properly disposing of trash and alternate choices that are environmentally friendly, keeping in mind how these stray pieces add onto a landslide of problems. In doing so, one might ask, “What reforms might be made in order to minimize human waste in the Pacific Ocean’s marine life?”
Aim of the study is to understand the actual problems which are faced by the rag pickers of the Deonar dumping