“Dumpster Diving” Class Discussion.

[Solomon Delgado]

To respond to Leah's breakdown questions, I would like to first start off with one of the questions being is dumpster diving reliable I would not say so as the aspect of you will not know what you're find and things might be thrown away for a reason. Secondly I would also like to state that for one of her questions it could be that various different upbringings and what people value and do not value in that various household. I would also like to agree with a lot of the points that she has stated in the aspect of it being possibly interesting to find and to the facts of you turning heads with Also smelling like the dumpster as well. Finally I would also like to break down the question of How living off of others goes into the contradictions of capitalism and how it affects the world as we see it.

[Lauren Park]

DECONSTRUCTION OF QUESTION(S):
How is his depiction of scavenging a necessity? How is it an art form? How do they interrogate societal constructs of morality, privilege, and economic disparity? How does his philosophy of “living off the waste of others” expose deeper contradictions in the ethics of abundance? How does it show scarcity in modern capitalist systems? What can Dumpster Diving reveal about society?

ANSWER TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Lars Eighner, in his personal narrative essay,“On Dumpster Diving” emphasizes how the art of dumpster diving was a necessity that helped him through a difficult time in life but also was a form of art. Scavenging was a necessity for Eighner as when he was poor and homeless, he had no money to buy things such as groceries, clothes, etc. and lived off of the things he could find in the dumpsters. He also states,“Dumpsters are full of things of some potential value to someone and also of things which never have much intrinsic value but are interesting.” (Eighner, 6). This shows how dumpsters aren’t just places for discarded items, but they also contain items that hold value to people, whether of needs or curiosity. Additionally, Eighner presents scavenging not just as a necessity but as an art form, as you need skill and knowledge to identify the usable items. People can always find a way to make use of whatever was thrown away. His philosophy of “living off the waste of others” exposes contradictions in the capitalist system which reveals how society buys things and throws them away creating scarcity.

[Daniel Lee]

In this essay "On Dumpster Diving" Lars explored the existence as a scavenger, he used his enjoyed in private so he can go through his life the way society waste, price, survival. He explained dumpster diving is longer a way of getting. But he has a skill of it. He shows that dumpster diving calls for resourcefulness. He doesn't describe the searching as it was shameful. However he writes about it as a he found out he had the ability to do this. However they've been changed by something more recent or higher. Eighner describes locating slightly used clothes also indicates bow privilege allows some human beings to treat excess to normal, at the same time like others. Eighner in the opposite hand it tells humans that are confined and not all of us could have what they need. It is genuinely visible in Eighner's scavenging. These situations readers to reflect on cosideration on how they intake conduct make a contribution. to waste and inequality. Eighner's reflections display how purchaser wraps people's experience of price. Human beings throw away perfectly right objects due to the fact they don't see their well worth anymore. The mindset results in waste on a big scale, which Eighner evaluation through his scavenging. He suggested the plenty of what society considers "trash" is still beneficial. This showed about the story of the "On Dumpster Diving". Scavenging can be very resourceful and not a waste. There are many things that can be useful also scavenging society.

[Tony Jiang]

Here’s a 250-word essay responding to the questions raised in the assignment:

In Lars Eighner’s “On Dumpster Diving,” he does not only view scavenging as something necessary for survival but also a unique form of critiquing the consumer society. Eighner explains how the practice of dumpster diving is not only useful but creative when raising attention to the excess and wastefulness in excessive consumerism. He explains the process whereby useable items are thrown away, and how these including objects are viewed in the light of values in society, and the construction practical use of. Such way of scavenging defies the ethics of most societies, which look down upon persons who feed on garbage and such because it is evident there is plenty. Respecting his lived-experience, Eighner addresses the issues of privilege and economic disparity, revealing the imbalance in the distribution of goods, which causes some people to live among heaps of garbage yet others throw it away without thinking.

Eighner’s view of “living from the wastes of others” presents a more vivid narrative around the contradiction of wastefulness against scarcity in contemporary capitalism. Instead of one interprets an abundance of waste as a sign of society that has gone to the extreme of overproduction and consumerism, it is at the same time, an indicator of social inequities that allows few people to rely on the wastes for survival. People have been brain washed to see rubbish in rubbish, but his belief in seeking purpose and value in the disregarded objects implies low waste economy and culture, which stands in stark contrast to the

[Nathan Versteeg]

In Lars Eighner's essay "Dumpster Diving" Eighner explores being a scavenger. He uses dumpster diving as a necessity to help him through difficult times throughout his life. He needed dumpster diving when he was homeless and didn't have any money for clothes or food. He used the items he found while dumpster diving to live. Throughout the story he says things like how dumpsters aren't only for things that people throw away but things worth value for others. In the essay he presents dumpster diving as a practice and art instead of just trash. This essay reveals that discarded items from the dumpster which were thought of as useless, can keep people alive in certain circumstances like it did for Eighner.

[Tony Jiang]

Ignore one above ^

In Mars Eighter's "Dumpster diving", the author criticizes the consumer culture by stating the excessive waste of food products in perfect condition. In the story, the main character is a homeless drug addict who learned how to scavenge food products since he was still in school, possibly due to family conditions or mental instability. During his scavenges he had found surprisingly plenty of food products discarded despite being in perfect condition (not accounting for ones laced with poison). Most according to the author is from those who do not have nutrition as a major concern. This reflects the phenomenon when the ones who could afford food tend to waste while the ones who could not still needs to search through dumpsters and scavenge through waste just to find food partially edible, risking horrendous disease and injuries. This consumer culture causes the less fortunate to starve even though the privileged ones could simply donate whatever they have remaining to their local food banks and help the poor instead of creating more potential problems. This criticism however, despite being true in most instances is somewhat exaggerated. Being partially taken from the author's personal experience, the story had an unrealistic portrayal of the homeless lifestyle crafted to fit the author's personal opinions.
However, even with the added in elements, the story still serves as a reasonable criticism of the ludicrous lifestyle of the those who follow the consumer culture.