"On Dumpster Diving" by Lars Eighner
In the essay "On Dumpster Diving", Lars Eighner, the author, describes his first-hand experiences and knowledge of dumpster diving or as the author prefers to call it "scavenging". Eighner is conveying his message to all those consumers who willingly choose to be wasteful in their nature. He accomplishes this by using a fairly positive tone throughout his essay when he is describing his personal experiences, except when he talks of the wasteful consumers and can scroungers.
My first expectation when I read the title "On Dumpster Diving" was that it was going to be an essay on all the negative aspects of diving into dumpsters and how hard life is out on the streets. However, it was quite surprising to see the author use a positive tone to express his views on the issue of dumpster diving. He actually has a sense of pride in his skills of what he does and does not mention any detest or remose for diving into dumpsters. Eighner even states that he was impressed with dumpsters long before he began dumpster diving, which he also only began a year before he became homeless.
Eighner begins to explain how dumpsters are an essential part to the lives of scavengers and that all "[t]he necessities of daily life [can be] extract[ed] from Dumpsters." Yet, I found it to be slightly contradictory as to what he said earlier in his essay that "...although if I could I would naturally prefer to live the comfortable consumer life, perhaps-and only perhaps-as a slightly less wasteful consumer, owing to what I have learned as a scavenger." If dumpsters are essential to the survival of scavengers how would scavengers survive if there was not enough food in the dumpsters for them to consume.
I know I'm going to contradict myself here, but the previous statement of how consumers should be less wasteful has me thinking of how much I as a consumer waste periodically and how the majority of people in today's modern developed society wastes as well. Because, all in all "One man's garbage is another man's survival."
Do you believe that people today are more wasteful with their possessions than they were a few years ago?
My first expectation when I read the title "On Dumpster Diving" was that it was going to be an essay on all the negative aspects of diving into dumpsters and how hard life is out on the streets. However, it was quite surprising to see the author use a positive tone to express his views on the issue of dumpster diving. He actually has a sense of pride in his skills of what he does and does not mention any detest or remose for diving into dumpsters. Eighner even states that he was impressed with dumpsters long before he began dumpster diving, which he also only began a year before he became homeless.
Eighner begins to explain how dumpsters are an essential part to the lives of scavengers and that all "[t]he necessities of daily life [can be] extract[ed] from Dumpsters." Yet, I found it to be slightly contradictory as to what he said earlier in his essay that "...although if I could I would naturally prefer to live the comfortable consumer life, perhaps-and only perhaps-as a slightly less wasteful consumer, owing to what I have learned as a scavenger." If dumpsters are essential to the survival of scavengers how would scavengers survive if there was not enough food in the dumpsters for them to consume.
I know I'm going to contradict myself here, but the previous statement of how consumers should be less wasteful has me thinking of how much I as a consumer waste periodically and how the majority of people in today's modern developed society wastes as well. Because, all in all "One man's garbage is another man's survival."
Do you believe that people today are more wasteful with their possessions than they were a few years ago?