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 doing it. “I began dumpster diving about a year before I became homeless” (Eighner 713). He tries to bring us into the world of being homeless. It is hard to imagine what it would be like in that situation, and how could surviving as a dumpster diver be a way of survival? As a dumpster diver, Eighner is able to tell us what is ok to eat and have and what is not ok for your health. His essay starts by uttering some guidelines of what is and is not safe to eat. “Eating safely from the dumpsters involves three principles: using common sense for evaluating the food, knowing the dumpsters of the given areas and always ask, “Why was this discarded?” (Eighner 714).
Eighner was born Laurence Vail Eighner in Corpus Christi, Texas, on November 25, 1948. When Eighner became homeless in 1988 after leaving a job he had been with for ten years as an attendant at a state hospital in Austin, Texas. “For three years he traveled back and forth between Austin and Los Angeles with his dog Lizbeth, earning what mo...
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...This is a very powerful article taking his readers into the world of being poor and homeless, and what people experience every day that could never be imagined. Eighner says in one of his last paragraphs that, “many times in our travels I have lost everything but the clothes I was wearing and Lizbeth” (Eighner 724). He also states that he and the wealthy have the same attitudes about knowing there is more where what they came from. Eighner is so powerful and doesn’t care what others think of him. He is just trying to survive like everyone else. To have such a carefree attitude is very moving.
Works Cited
"Travels with Lizbeth: Three Years on the Road and On the Streets." Publishers Weekly 260.34 (2013): 57. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
Eighner, Lars (1992) "On Dumpster Diving," New England Journal of Public Policy: Vol. 8: Iss. 1, Article 7.
During the duration of Eighner’s time as homeless, he had found the best diving spots where he had found diaries, birth control pills and slightly warm pizzas. Eighner wasn’t bothered by his lifestyle, rather he simply embraced it, as he dove in the broad daylight. Eighner and his dog Lizbeth, jumped into dumpsters to survive daily, they would pick out people’s “trash” and use it as their own. Food was a particularly dominant thing Eighner would find in the dumpster, he learned what food was the best
Many people at one time or another will face some-sort of economic hardship; however it is safe to say that many people do not really know what extreme poverty is like. The Treviño family knows first hand what it is like to work in tedious, mind-numbing jobs for a very little paycheck. The life of a migrant worker is not anything to be desired. Simple things that most would take for granted like food variety, baths, clean clothes, and beds are things that Elva learned to live with. “We couldn’t have a bath every day, since it was such a big production. But [mom] made us wash our feet every night” (125). A simple task to any normal person is a large production for a migrant family that doesn’t have any indoor plumbing. People living in poverty do not often have a large wardrobe to speak of which means that the few clothes they own often remain dirty because washing clothes is a production too. “Ama scrubbed clothes on the washboard while the rest of us bathed. She took a bath last while the rest of us rinsed and hung up the clothes she had washed. This was the only oppor...
There are plenty of articles that discuss in great detail the conditions and many aspects of dumpster diving, but there is a fundamental difference between diving for survival and diving for profit. Lars Eighner, the author of “On Dumpster Diving”, tells stories of multiple instances of his dumpster diving experience. Eighner also explains exactly what it’s like to be homeless and to rely on scavenging through garbage to survive in order to get your next meal. On the other hand, in the article “Dumpster Divers: Scavenging is About More Than the Trash” by Elana Dure, she discusses that dumpster divers believe to think they are scavenging for treasure, not just for pleasure and enjoyment, but for profit. Both are “making a living”, but one group
Jeremy Seifert’s documentary, Dive!, goes behind the scenes to show that there are billions of pounds of food waste a year in our country when 1 billion people a day are starving worldwide. Seifert originally began his dumpster diving to show that his family of three could not only salvage good food to eat from the trash, but they would also save more
Eighner's autobiographical essay not only shows the degradation homeless people indure, but his personal snobbery of those around him
Mark Peterson’s 1994 photograph, Image of Homelessness, compares the everyday life of the working class to the forgotten life of the lowest class in society. In the image, the viewer can see a troubled homeless man wrapped in a cocoon of standard manipulated 12in by 12in cardboard boxes and yarn. The yarn is what is keeping the man and box tied to the red bench. This bench has chipped paint and is right in front of a black fence. Underneath the bench is dirt and debris from the dead fall leaves. The center focal point is the homeless man on the bench. He is the focal point because he is the greatest outsider known to man. Behind this man is vibrant life. There is pulsating people crossing the clean street, signs of life from all the advertising on store windows, families walking and blurred cars filled with
Step 3: 1. Eighner introduces his arguments through the use of narrative stories and his own personal experiences. He uses this technique to let the reader see firsthand how some people are able to survive off what is carelessly thrown away by others who take what they own for granted. Eighner illustrates this point on page 1, “The necessities of daily life I began to extract from Dumpsters. Yes, we ate from Dumpsters. Except for jeans, all my clothes can from Dumpsters. Boom boxes, candles, bedding, toilet paper, medicine, books, a typewriter… I acquired many things from the Dumpsters.”
Food is the most important thing to survive, but for homeless, it takes miracle to find food even for a day. Some people got food from begging on the street or buy food by the money they received. Others find food in unfortunate places; trashcan, picking it on the road, or eat others’ leftover. Even if there are chances of getting food from, some also starve and even lead to death. Because of food being so hard to find, 57% homeless spends at least a day being starve (“Statics” 2). For not receiving food and not eating regularly, it affects health conditions. They become sick easily. Once homeless gets sick, it is not easy to get back on track because they do not have anybody that take care of them. While the population of homeless increase, the death rate of homeless people also increase.
The author, Lars Eighner explains in his informative narrative, “On Dumpster Diving” the lifestyle of living out of a dumpster. Eighner describes the necessary steps to effectively scavenge through dumpsters based on his own anecdotes as he began dumpster diving a year before he became homeless. The lessons he learned from being a dumpster diver was in being complacent to only grab what he needs and not what he wants, because in the end all those things will go to waste. Eighner shares his ideas mainly towards two direct audiences. One of them is directed to people who are dumpster divers themselves, and the other, to individuals who are unaware of how much trash we throw away and waste. However, the author does more than direct how much trash
Lars Eighner uses the appeal of ethos the most prominently in his book to prove he is credible, followed by an appeal logos by applying logic and pathos using stories.
This essay's structure is based on the quote "beginning with the practical art of Dumpster diving and presiding to the abstract" (379). Eighner begins with an informative tone to explain the foods to eat and avoid, the stages Dumpster divers go through, and label the places where divers are most successful. The "abstract" part of the quote talks about the ideas and thoughts he gathered from his experiences as a homeless person. This satire on people's wastefulness transitions into a more critical tone when he critiques society for their obsession for materialistic objects and their wasteful nature.
Each and everyday people look for a way to help the community and environment around them. It could either be picking up trash around the local park, or cleaning up destructed areas, it could even be simply turning off the lights after you exit a room. How much does one really need? How might this affect the environment? One professor at Huston-Tillotson University, Jeff Wilson, took it a step further to answer that question. Wilson constructed an experiment called ‘The Dumpster Project’. Wilson moved from a large home into a dumpster. When journalist James Hamblin heard about this project he wanted to share it with the world. Hamblin uses the technique of in depth examination and expression to show the environmental impact and inspiring
As depicted by Mayberry (2009) Lars Eighner began dumpster diving for food a year before he became homeless the first time in 1988 and again in 1995 but prefers the term scavenger, which he feels is a “sound and honorable niche” (p.351). It is not clear from this excerpt why he started scavenging for food long before he became homeless nor what led to him become homeless either time, however one could surmise that it was from lack of resources to purchase food to eat and living expenses. Pearce (2013) continued to state on a phenomenon that “one may in fact still have housing but may not be able to afford much more than the monthly payment”, consequently if one continues to pay for the housing, he or she may have less available in terms of food and end up relying on other sources of food as Lars Eighner did by scavenging dumpsters (para. 12). Eighner went on to state how he was able to discern edible foods from non-edible such as eating yogurt past the expiration date if it was still sealed, however with all the precautions he took still got dysentery at least once a
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.” 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.” 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.” He can not really hold sentiment to objects considering he’s constantly on the move. While Eighner is not asking the audience to feel guilty or mournful that he has come across numerous, pitiful stories, the audience is still moved by the stories. It might even remind the readers
In our nature, we have the habit of throwing as much stuff possible even if it’s something that is still usable. A small imperfection makes them liable to throw it away, yet there are people out there who have nothing to eat and are constantly hunting for food, even if it isn’t a real hot meal. They just need something to fulfill their digestive need. Food should be viewed with much more value and respect rather than ignoring and throwing it as if it’s trash and not life essential. The statement we constantly hear but fail to acknowledge is that “some people have it much worse” and there are those who really do. People who don’t have a cent to their name are going through dumpsters and eating the food that you threw out. There’s a huge amount of homeless people in our nation yet our government still fails to take action. It is for this reason that I believe the community should recognize homelessness as a problem and petition government to take action against it.