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Dumpster Diving

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Dumpster Diving

Lars Eighner is an experienced dumpster diver or as he prefers to call it “scavenging.” He writes “On Dumpster Diving” an essay about the three years he spent on the streets accompanied by his lone companion, dog Lizabeth. Born in Texas in 1948, Eighner began dumpster diving one year before he ended up homeless after being unable to pay for his rent. Diving through dumpsters to obtain life’s main necessities, Eighner becomes a veteran at realizing what foods are safe and what items can be useful if kept. One of the most important aspects of trying to persuade readers is to use the appropriate tone according to the situation. The calm tone that Eighner uses doesn’t strengthen his argument, but with his knowledge of dumpster diving, he ultimately persuade readers that people living in modernized parts of the world have wasteful habits. By reading the essay, I am convinced of his argument about wasteful people being very common.
Eighner approaches the topic of dumpster diving with a very calm tone. The tone he uses does not allow the reader to connect with him and feel what he was feeling when he was homeless. If the essay had a more emotional tone it would leave the reader with amore sympathetic view regarding the topic of dumpster diving. For instance, he believes that the term dumpster diving is “a little too cute.”(p.147) Usually, when a person thinks of the term dumpster diving, they feel sympathy towards the individual who is led to scrounge through a dumpster for means of survival. Hence, this essay would be a lot more intriguing if he expressed his emotions because readers would feel empathetic towards him and this challenging chapter of his life. His calm tone alludes to the fact that dumpster diving is his lifestyle, something that he did everyday for four years. A person reading this may not completely understand because they did not have the experiences he did.
Eighner uses his personal experiences of hardship to convince readers of the wasteful nature of people in today’s society. Eighner “began scavenging by pulling pizzas out of the dumpster behind a pizza delivery shop.” (p.149) This small example shows just how much food is being thrown away when there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. This pizza is useful and should not just be thrown away. I believe that these pizza shops fail to realize the amount of food that they are wasting; this is food that can be used to feed the needy. I think that providing this small example in his essay, he is able to convince readers of this wastefulness. It makes readers want to take a moment to think before throwing away their leftover meals. He provides further evidence when he describes the amount of food that students throw away around their breaks since they do not know whether it has spoiled or will spoil before they return. Eighner emphasizes that foods are discarded because of minor imperfections. He gives enough reason to demonstrate how wasteful people are. By reading Eighner’s essay I realize how much I waste myself.
After becoming aware of the amount of materials wastefully thrown into dumpsters, I am willing to change my own behavior. The thought of people in today’s society being able to survive off the items found in a dumpster says something about the lack of value placed on materials that could otherwise be used. Unfortunately, I find myself contributing items to these dumpsters as I throw out untouched food due to lack of appetite and clothing based on minor tears. I’ve thrown out things in good condition, simply because I had no use for them anymore. Having become immune to this behavior, Eighner’s experience has brought awareness to my daily lifestyle choices.
Although, Eighner presented his dumpster diving experiences in a calm tone that did not invoke sympathy from readers, his argument remained effective. The persuasiveness of his experiences was not held back by the tone in which it was written; it was, instead, able to bring awareness among readers. Eighner provided valuable information from past experiences and brought up examples of wasted material that many are guilty of for throwing away. Throughout his efforts, Eighner was able to have us relate to this issue and take a second glance at our own behavior. However, his message wasn’t an attack at society, rather an experience meant to be shared in hopes of carrying out a small change within all the readers.

References

Eighner, Lars. On Dumpster Diving. Ed. Samuel Cohen. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011.

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