Lars Eighner was born in Corpus Christi, Texas and grew up in Houston. Eighner attended the University of Texas in the late 1960s. Besides writing, he has worked at a drug crisis center and at the state asylum in Austin, Texas. When he lost his state job in Austin in the late 1980s and couldn't support himself with his writing, Eighner was homeless for about three years. He recounted his experiences in the highly acclaimed book as well as novel such as Travels with Lizbeth: Three Years on the Road, on the Streets (1993), Pawn to Queen Four (1995) and so forth. "On Dumpster Diving" is a gently written look at a tough subject. It was first published as "My Daily Dives in the Dumpster" in 1991 in Harper's Magazine and was revised and reprinted in Travels with Lizbeth. In this essay, Eighner has portrayed successfully a scavenger's persona with exposition.
English: Texas State Aquarium at Corpus Christi, T...
Lars Eigner, author of "Travels with Lizbeth" from...
DumpsterNow, let's analyze the persona in his essay to understand how it is under Eighner's pen.
At the introduction, he says, "Long before, I began Dumpster diving I was impressed with Dumpsters." In common sense, all of us consider "Dumpster diving" as an ashamed, unrespectable job; the job, which always interacts with nasty, disgusting stuff, is merely for homeless people who were looked down by the society. Eighner also knows that, so he takes time to define the term "Dumpster diving": "I prefer the word scavenging and use the word scrounging when I mean to be obscure. I have heard people...use the word foraging, but I prefer to reserve that word for gathering nuts ..." His picky definitions seem to tell us that "Dumpster diving" is not only interesting, but it also is "the practical art" that requires "the athletic ability" to "their increased profit". However, throughout...