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102-102 11 June 2012 Response Essay On Dumpster Diving Lars Eighners On Dumpster Diving explores the authors life as a scavenger. After reading this work, one can conclude Eighner has undoubtedly made a simple and satisfying life of what most people may see as dirty and disgusting. The author quickly develops a system for maintaining his livelihood while finding the most useful items in the most fruitful Dumpsters. When trying to decipher rotten or dangerous goods from the ones better able to meet nutritional and daily needs Eighner simply asks himself, What is safe to eat (par.7). He points out how wasteful people can be by throwing away perfectly good and often unused items simply because of inconvenience. Eighner 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 (par. 65), pointing out the importance people put on objects when sentiment is truly measured by the man not the material. The author tells of his pity for those who are unable to say no to useless junk and compares himself to the wealthy by saying, my desire to grab for the gaudy bauble has been largely stated...an attitude I share with the very wealthy- we both know there is plenty more where what we have came from (par. 68).

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