On Dumpster Diving By Ishmael Beah Analysis

Ishmael Beah’s “The Making, and Unmaking, of a Child Soldier” describes the devastating psychological and physical effects of war and the post-war recovery of a child attempting to overcome his survivor’s guilt. Beah transforms from an innocent child of twelve to someone who knows only killing and death in the war-torn country of Sierra Leone during the early 1990s (Beah 253). Beah’s psychological struggle begins with the destruction of his village and the deaths of his family which makes him feel “lost and worthless in a world of …fear and suspicion” (253). As Beah flees from these attacks, his struggles continue as he survives on his own as a runaway with “roads littered with dead bodies, some mutilated in ways so horrible that looking

Eighner’s scavenging emphasizes the negative actions of Middle Class Americans in its senseless waste. Through his dumpster searches he discovers that “people throw away perfectly good stuff, a lot of perfectly good stuff” such as clothing, food, and electronic devices (Eighner 357). He intellectually describes people thoughtlessly throwing items away such as “chocolate… because it has become discolored as the cocoa butter de-emulsified” and pizza “shops (discarding) pizzas because of bogus orders, …wrong toppings,…refused on delivery for being cold, or baked incorrectly…boxed up because inventory is kept by counting boxes” (354, 355). Eighner reveals how he survives from these discarded items that people in American cities thoughtlessly toss in the garbage. Eighner’s survival as a homeless person for three years demonstrates the reality of the items “thrown out through carelessness, ignorance, or wastefulness” and many of these items still remain “in the original packaging or only “discarded for minor imperfections” such as fruits (354, 355). Eighner also focuses on the wastefulness of “affluent college students” when he refers to these “Dumpsters in this area are very rich” as the students “throw out many good things, including food… since it is Daddy’s money” the student uses to replace the useless items (355). This negative description of college students’ behavior is an example of Eighner’s feeling of superiority toward this group of people even though he relates to them because he attends college for several years before he eventually becomes homeless. His sarcasm of these college students exemplifies his dislike of the waste. Although the author is in the lowest social class in society, he criticizes the students although he comes from an educated background. The