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The Scavenger Eighner Rhetorical Analysis

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Eighner’s attention to language in the first five paragraohs appeals to logos. He introduces the word “Dumpster” as a “properietary word belonging to the Dempster Dumpster company”, which is he continues to capitalize it (Eighner 107). Inserting this information makes the reader realize the seriousness the author feels toward the subject written about in the essay. Eighner considers himself a Dumpster diver, and continues to capatilize Dumpster because that is what he considers his proper name, Further on, the author introduces what he does as a scavenging rather than dumpster diving, because he lacks the ability to lower himself into the Dumpster. Eighner integrates ethics in the fifth paragraph as he claims that what does is an honorable …show more content…

He does not want the reader to combine all scavengers into a single category because their reason for scavenging is not the same. While a true scavenger dives into dumpsters for survival, a can scavengers are “drug addicts and winos, mostly the latter because the amounts of cash are so small.” (Eighner 114). The author does not desire to be compared to a an scavenger, he holds himself at a different standard. This distinction serves to provide a reader with insight into the variety of people in the streets. The paragraphs that follow include information about the life of a true scavenger and a can scavenger. Eighner claims that can scavenging takes much longer than true Dumpster diving and it does not provide a person with the necessary essentials for …show more content…

He is expressing his feelings about her and his hope of getting off the streets so she can have a comfortable old age. To Eighner. Lizbeth is no longer just a pet, she is his companion. Whenever the author find something that he thinks “is safe that has been spilled from the Dumpster” he lets her have it (Eighner 116). Eighner cares for Lizbeth, he does not refrain from giving her food, but instead offers as much as he can provide. This is an example of they love he has for her, and the appreciation he feels towards having her. He hopes to one day give her a proper home, or that if she is to outlive him, she can survive on her own. If her time comes while he still lives, he will have no other choice but to leave her in a dumpster, the same dumpsters she has grown up around.
There are certain ethics that come into play in Dumpster diving, of which Eighner holds precious. Eighner argues that although he and others are scavengers, they do hold courtesies among each other. While a scavenger may have all that he needs, “it is common practice to set aside surplus items…” (Eighner 115). A scavenger knows that although he may not be in necessity there are those who will. Instead of throwing away perfectly fine items, they think about others and leave them in plain sight. A can scavenger would do the opposite and overlook a pair of good shoes, leaving them at the bottom of the

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In the essay “On Dumpster Diving” Lars Eighter explains his life as a dumpster diver. What to eat, where to go, he explained it all. What was unclear was his purpose; he did a good job explaining and getting people to get emotional but then there was no purpose. What did he want his audience to feel or do after they read “On Dumpster Diving”? Did he want them to feel bad for wasting stuff that could have still been used or was it a survival guide type of thing?

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The amount of time spent with something will change your views and thinking, that is what Barbara Ehrenreich and Lars Eighner share in their papers. Both had low status jobs after having a college education and their work is similar, yet opposites in some ways. The difference is that in Ehrenreich’s, “Serving in Florida”, she believes that restaurant waitressing jobs are degrading to workers because she only had one experience for research and had to stick with it for a short time that she chose, it was unnecessary work to her. While in Eighner’s, “On Dumpster Diving”, he thinks of them as a privilege and enjoyable because he had no other choice than his line of work, he had to put up with being homeless for 3 years to survive without any help.

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The describing technique is more apparent throughout the text and helps the reader, through imagery, to imagine the ordeal of digging through dumpsters to find important materials. Such imagery includes the warnings about what to and what not to eat or drink from the dumpsters such as “I have discovered nasty mold in vegetable juices…” (“On Dumpster Diving” from The Norton Reader page 23, paragraph 26). The imagery does not go into much detail in the text but that is most likely due to the fact that Eighner did not want his audience tossing his work away out of repulsion. Describing was added to the mix of examples to aid in reinforcing the ideas presented towards the end.

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Eighner’s use of language in these paragraphs appeals more to pathos since he utilizes diction, such as when he mentions that he sees dumpster diving as “a sound and honorable niche” (Eighner 108), to

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Ultimately, thanks to his “scavenging” journey, Eighner has learned to live on the disposal of others by filtering out what is useful to keep and what is useless to remove. Most importantly, he becomes aware that the balances between wants and needs and between material possessions and freedom of burdens can lead to happiness, or what Eighner calls—“a healthy state of

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1. The effects of Eighner’s attention to language in the first five paragraphs emphasizes that he is knowledgeable and confident about dumpster diving. As he states, “I live from the refuse of others. I am a scavenger” (Eighner 108). Eighner create an appeal to ethos when he displays his own experiences on the lifestyle of dumpster diving and its different aspects.

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