On Dumpster Diving

“On Dumpster Diving” 1. List modes/patterns of development Examples: Paragraph 24, 50, 26 Couse/Effect: Paragraph 25, 51, 66 Compare/Contrast: Paragraph 62, 67, 44 2. Identify audience and purpose The audience could be directed to people who are interested in dumpster diving and the purpose would be informative. The writer informed his readers what he learned from dumpster diving and how to effectively acquire daily necessities from scavenging. 3. Define one word Transience: transient state or quality 4. Summarize the reading On Dumpster Diving” is an essay about a homeless man who shares his experiences on how he obtained his necessities while he was homeless and how to be most effective at dumpster diving. He goes over the different kinds of food commonly found in dumpsters and how to determine what is safe to eat, and what to stay away from. Location is also an important factor he considers. He learned that college student tend to be more wasteful than others, throwing out many good items, including food, particularly around the end of the semester when they have to move.

Because of this, he describes the dumpsters in an area inhabited manly by college students and being “rich”. After explaining more dumpster diving techniques and identifying how wasteful the general population is, he ends the essay with two lessons learned. The first lesson is to only take what he needs, a found item he cannot use or make useful by trading holds no value. The second lesson learned is that material objects have a shelf life whereas mental things are longer lived. He states, “Once I was the sort of person who invests objects with sentimental value.

Now I no longer have those objects, but I have the sentiments yet. ” 5. Answer one question: In addition to food, what else does Eighner scavenge for? Into what general category do these items fall? In addition to food, all of Eighner’s clothes, except for jeans, came from scavenging. He also acquired boom boxes, candles, bedding, toilet paper, medicine, books, a typewriter, dishes, furnishings and change. The general category these items fall under would be Eighner’s daily necessities.

Cite this page