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King Sum Kong

Professor Stein

English 101

14 March 2014

Barbara Ehrenreich “Serving in Florida” vs. Lars Eighner “On Dumpster Diving”

Back to the time when I was still in college in Hong Kong, I had been a part-time waitress

for a few years. I had seen a shabby old man grabbed the leftovers after the restaurant closed;

after we saw him several times, however, the manager saved the leftovers until next morning so

as to prevent the man taking it. Yet what I had seen or what I had experienced from being

waitress may not as arduous as Ehrenrich’s or even as wretched as Eighner’s. In her essay,

“Serving in Florida”, Barbara Ehrenreich recounts her serving life as a server who lives on the

tips she earns, while in Lars Eighner’s “On Dumpster Diving”, Eighner is homeless and lives on

everything he find from the dumpsters. They are so similar that neither one could live without the

tips from serving nor the sources from scavenge; implying the plentiful living of upper class

people from the other side. On the other hand, Ehrenreich and Eighner have presented different

attitudes on quality of living. Eighner is not only unashamed of being scavenger, he has also

learned lessons from dumpster living; since Ehrenreich focused herself on sustaining a living, all

she experienced are restricted to physical life.

One fact as a server, Ehrenreich earned and lived on the tips as a manual labor, which could

be reduce by “the tourist business in the summer heat” (Ehrenreich 141). Therefore, the only

thing she considered every day is how to sustain her living, which upper class people would be

less worry about. She couldn’t eat better, “usually some slow-burning, high-protein combo like

frozen chicken patties with melted cheese on top and canned pinto beans on the side”(141), not
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even attempted to buy herself a cooking pot, which is ironically when we read about scavengers

could obtain well-preserved high-quality food from dumpsters in Eighner’s essay. What’s more,

she had considered to reduce expenses to pay the rent but there is no more expense to be cut,

nonetheless there are always some items besides food are found in dumpsters like, “embroider-

by-number kits” and “diaries and journals” (XXX).

Eventually, Ehrenreich determine to work two jobs to sustain her living:

I start out with the beautiful, heroic idea of handling the two jobs

at once, and for two days I almost do it: working the break-fast/lunch

shift at Jerry’s from 8:00 till 2:00, arriving at the Hearthside a few

minutes late, at 2:10, and attempting to hold out until 10:00.

This part of experience shows that impoverished people like Ehrenreich have to compromise

their living on two jobs because they have no choice other than non-skilled low-level jobs, which

is a contrast to well-educated and technique-equipped people from upper class.

Eighner “live from the refuse of others. He is a scavengar. ”(147), it’s because he was broken,

lost everything include his home. Without receiving support from others, dumpster is the only

source he could obtain necessaries of life. “Boom boxes, candles, bedding, toilet paper....: I

acquired many things from the Dumpsters.”(147) As a matter of fact, the reason why Eighner

could made his living on dumpsters mostly because of city people’s indifference, which is similar

to Ehrenreich’s situation, their struggle both reflect the reality that city people are unconcerned

with sources.

Meanwhile, Ehrenreich’s essay also reveals that she is a practical and realistic person. She

prefer exhausts herself on long-hours jobs to afford a shelter rather than living on the streets like

shabby homeless; homelessness is never considered to be a choice for herself nor her colleagues
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although it cost them the most according to the survey (139) which is done by Ehrenreich.

Physically, Ehrenreich could not accept to live without material objects, she has to live under a

roof, with currency in hand. However, Eighner presents an attitude that he is not concerned with

material objects as much as before. In his spiritual mind, he feels the value of material objects

are based on people’s thoughts. Since he physically lost everything and had experienced a harsh

chapter of life, he prefers to only live on his basis need without caring appearance or traditional

negative thoughts of being a scavenger. “Anyway, I find my desire to grab for the gaudy bauble

has been largely sated.”(158)

What Eighner presented is the life of living in city, people are thoughtlessly to throw away

well-conditioned or little-defected goods, especially the wealthy young people. When Ehrenreich

aims to convey the fact that we could not live on low-wage, which is a strong contrast comparing

to the wasteful people in “On Dumpster Diving”.

Introduction
Argument/thesis - w/titles+ authors of both essays| How are the essays similar, different or both?
Supporting paragraphs - w/evidence that prove your argument+ quotes
Similarities and/or differences
where exactly see them in the essays
More supporting paragraph
Conclusion
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Works Cited

Ehrenreich, Barbara. “Serving in Florida.” 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Samuel Cohen. 3rd

ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s 2011. 136 - 145. Print.

Eighner, Lars. “On Dumpster Diving.” 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Samuel Cohen. 3rd ed.

New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s 2011. 146 - 158. Print.