Dumpster Diving by Lars Eighner
Expository Essay Revision “Between us are the rat-race millions who have confounded their selves with the objects they grasp..” (Page 119). A quote from Lars Eighner’s nonfiction informative essay of “On Dumpster Diving”. Here Eighner is simply stating how society now mainly relies on materialistic objects, and how they’ve confused themselves by these materialistic objects. Eighner shows us how we are being too caught up with objects, and that’s not the way life should be lived. Eighner is basically telling us that even though these objects may be important in some way, they aren’t what we need in life, and that the real meaning in these objects, if there are any, should be sentimental values, such as memories. Lars Eighner states, “I began Dumpster diving about a year before I became homeless.” (Page 107). through this quote, we know that Eighner undoubtedly has had experience on the experience of Dumpster diving. through the essay, he speaks from his own personal experiences and views about society. “I have learned much as a scavenger. I mean to put some of what I have learned down here, beginning with the practical art of Dumpster diving and proceeding to the abstract.” (Page108). And by “abstract”, Eighner simply means the ideas and thoughts that he derived from his experience as a Dumpster diver. Her later perceives the world in a new light, seeing society as materialistic, and that he himself has gone through a “transience of being materialistic”. From Dumpster diving, Eighner says,” This has not quite converted me to a dualist but It has made me some headway in that direction. I do not suppose that ideas are immortal, but certainly mental things are longer-lived than other material things.” (Page 118). Eighner, in a way is saying that he believes that materialistic objects are not as important as the thoughts behind them, hoarding things that may have little to no value in reality is rather pointless when they can be easily tarnished