In 1993, Lars Eighner, a homeless college dropout, published his memoir titled Travels with Lizbeth. Within, an essay titled “On Dumpster Diving” shares his experiences and how they define his identity. Eighner views identity not solely on his status of a scavenger, but rather on how his experiences shape his identity and how he acts despite his circumstances. Similarly, as a student, my own identity is not based on my status, but rather on how my behavior is shaped in my situations. The identities of individuals are defined by how they live, how they react, and how they behave in all circumstances, not on their status or profession. Throughout Eighner’s essay, he utilizes various strategies to explain the process of Dumpster diving and how his personal experiences have shaped his own identity. Starting with a narrative, the author describes his passion for Dumpsters and his financial reasons for becoming a scavenger. Transitioning into a didactic tone, Eighner then defines various terms surrounding this idea of Dumpster diving and contrasts the meaning of a scavenger and scrounger. To him, scavenging is “a sound and honorable niche” (55), while scrounging is crude and demeaning. After comparing the motives of Dumpster divers with average people, he discusses various foods found in Dumpsters and the processes needed to ensure safe and healthy consumption. With a negative attitude towards ignorant college students and wasteful consumers, Eighner begins
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,
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.”
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
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 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).
The additional purpose in the setting of his idea is to remind himself of the rules of dumpster diving, what things you may be able to learn from it, and the advantages along with the disadvantages.
“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.
Many people think that dumpster diving is a survival to search and find something in a dumpster that they needed some discarded food/drink in order to survive if they are homeless and are really hungry/thirsty. The purpose of Lars Eighner’s memoir, “On Dumpster Diving”, is to understand the style of his writing of why capitalizes the letter D in “Dumpster”. The importance of this memoir is symbolized to define his survival needs including his dog, Lizbeth which is both his living and eating at a dumpster. There are many reasons why I chose Lars Eighner’s essay, “On Dumpster Diving”. I believe the style of Lars’s memoir was effective because Lars was impressed living in dumpsters, Lars was searching and scavenging for food in a dumpster and
Each Author is unique they write about many different pieces, but they all have this set of principles they go by. Every author thinks about these four main concepts when they write and they are audience, genre, context, purpose. They first think about who will want to read their work so try to establish an audience. The Author next has to determine what their writing will be. They have to decide whether it's science fiction or any other, but they understand it important tell the genre of the work. Authors cannot be all over the place they are focused on one specific tone. Next authors contemplate why to write at all there must be a reason that is true, they all written for a purpose each author has one. Authors often write in troubling times for them like
Homelessness is increasing every year and effecting Americans of different age, ethnicity and religion. In Lars Eighner “On Dumpster Diving” he explains what he went through while being homeless. He describes how and what foods someone should be looking for and to always be conscious of what one is eating because there is always a reason why something has been thrown out. He continues to go into detail about other items that can be found in the dumpster like sheets to sleep on and pieces of paper to write on. Things that can keep him busy through the day. Eighner carefully explains to his readers how being a dumpster diver has become a life style for the homeless and this is how they survive. It’s a way of living and they are comfortable
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.
American authors Barbara Lazear Ascher and Lars Eighner reveal unique relationships between socioeconomic classes and lessons learned from adversity in “On Compassion” and “On 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.
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.