Exploring Poverty Through the Lens of On Dumpster Diving

Essay: Lars Eighner’s"On Dumpster Diving" Student's Name Institution Affiliation Course Number Date Introduction Lars Eighner’s "On Dumpster Diving" is an interesting piece that assesses the American consumer culture and the rooted wastefulness ingrained in society. The author lived a life of scavenging, where he relied on dumpsters for food and livelihood, and from this desperate encounter, she can highlight a critical subject in society today. Lar’s life as a scavenger and living on the streets was dilapidated. She struggled with a lack of quality and sufficient food, poor sanitization, and the mental stigma that came with her lifestyle. She refers to her life on the street as ‘On dumpster Diving’, where she had to gather America’s wasteful resources and put them to use, and she appreciates her scavenging abilities. Eighner provides valuable insights into humanity's questioning of the abundance of resources and their disposability. Throughout her journey as a dumpster, Eighner purports that there is no shame in living on the refuse of others since material things do not define an ideal life. This essay shows Eighner’s journey on dumpster diving on how Americans struggle to make ends meet in a tough American social setting due to the rising cost of living, poor wages, and America’s wasteful consumer culture, which can be influential in living a life of poverty. Poverty Eighner's journey of scavenging and dumpster diving in the streets of Texas exemplifies a life of poverty. Together with her dog Lizbeth who died in 1998, she spent three years on the streets feeding on the refuses of Americans. Rent and affording necessities were a problem; affording them put him on the journey of dumpster diving. “While my dog Lizbeth and I were still living in the house on Avenue B in Austin, as my savings ran out, I put almost all my