Unlock document.
This document is partially blurred.
Unlock all pages and 1 million more documents.
Get Access
Guillen 1
Carolina Guillen
“Analytical Essay on “On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner”
Lars Eighner’s short story, “On Dumpster Diving,” depicts the lifestyle of a scavenger to
show its advantages and drawbacks. In fact, the story is the author’s resource to advise other
people trying to make it out in the streets on how to survive out of “a sound and honorable
niche” (Eighner 87). Eighner presents a set of rules on Dumpster diving that he has come to learn
for himself, providing credibility to the story. Although it might seem that the only themes are
homelessness and survival, “On Dumpster Diving” has an even greater purpose. The story
criticizes the American society by exposing the painful reality, raising the question of who is to
pity more, a scavenger or an unconscious, materialistic person.
Eighner presents the story in the first-person point of view, being himself the narrator,
