Analysis of Lars Eighner's "My Daily Dives in the Dumpster."
...rring question must be answered: “Why was this discarded?” (88). Eighner spends the majority of his essay describing his dumpster frequents and also explains his dislike of can scroungers. He began his search for food by waiting for employees of a local pizza shop to throw out unused pizzas and he says that he later migrated to dumpsters near college students because they frequently throw out food that is in perfect condition or is only a few days past the printed expiration date. Eighner considers his way of life to be an art of intelligence and calculation and resents those in his field of work who are inconsiderate of other scroungers. For example, Eighner explains that he deeply despises can scroungers not because they are a form of competition, but because they invade personal garbage cans and violate a homeowner’s right to privacy. He says that true scavengers let nothing go to waste and leave what they cannot use in good condition for someone else (89). Can collectors, however, “become so specialized that they see only cans” (89). They fail to appreciate and respect the relevance of the objects other people throw away: A person’s garbage may contain sad memories, evidence of ruined marriages, and personal secrets (90). Although he must live off of other people’s unwanted things and food, the author still believes in personal standards and has even developed a form of “scavenger ethics”—ones that can scroungers clearly violate—and he chooses to uphold those values the same way he would if he lived in the more traditional society. In the last division of his essay, Eighner reflects on his lifestyle and reveals the two lessons he has learned from it. Dumpster diving, he says, is “often surprisingly pleasant…and not entirely predictable” (90). The author views his way of living as “a modern form of self-reliance” and says that even though he would, of course, prefer a steady income, he is not unhappy with his work (90). Throughout his experience as a scavenger, Eighner says he has learned to “take what I can use and let the rest go” (90): No matter how expensive or rare an object used to be, if he cannot benefit from it, he simply casts is aside. Another significant lesson the writer has learned is the “transience of a material being” (90). Seeing the things that people throw out is a constant reminder that every object eventually becomes useless to someone. However, because every thing ...