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Neuburger Eng Comp 2 102-127 30 August 2012 Response Essay Lars Eighner- On Dumpster Diving On Dumpster Diving by Lars Eighner details his and his dogs lives while homeless. The story focusses largely on the fact Americans are so wasteful that often times the homeless, who are much less materialistic than people with disposable wealth, can survive quite easily from the wealthys garbage. Throughout Eighners story he mentions finding so much he often has to put things back or take only what he needs. Eighner states, even if I had a home with extensive storage space, I could not save everything that might be valuable... (260). Eighner is stating he finds so much in dumpsters that even if he had a home he would not have enough space for what other people are calling garbage. Eighner shows the difference between the wealthy and the scavengers by stating, A true scavenger hates to see good stuff go to waste, and what he cannot use he leaves in good condition in plain sight (261). It is apparent most employed Americans are prone to buying more than needed only to arrive eventually at throwing the goods out. The homeless, on the contrary, take only what they can use and leave what someone needs more than them.

Eighner, Lars. On Dumpster Diving. Power of Language/Language of Power. Second Ed. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2011. 253-65. Print. Custom Edition for Ozarks Technical Community College