"On Dumpster Diving" Lars Eighner

Right off the bat, it is interesting to see how the author of this piece writes. He used proper language and even makes the piece sound sophisticated, even when speaking about such a crude topic. When I began to read the piece, it made me curious, why is such an educated-sounding man talking about his homelessness and dumpster diving? I could not understand if he wanted to give us his perspective on it or if he wanted to show off the fact that he was educated because he began the piece by writing about him reading Webster's Dictionary. 

The author then goes on to talk about examining food and determining if it's good or not. When he speaks of this he gives a story about a pizza place dumpster near a college. This further gives me hints that he might have been a professor of some sort and is reminiscing about his work days. It interests me that he speaks of students who throw away food as "the student" which sounds like something a school professional would refer to students as. The author talks about how to tell whether alcohol is contaminated or not, yet goes on to contradict my predictions about him being an alcoholic by telling a story of how he accidentally got drunk mid-afternoon by drinking a beverage he scavenged earlier. He calls dumpster diving a "way of life" which makes it sound like some kind of social experiment being performed by him rather than something he has no control over. 


The author of the piece comments on winos giving people bad impressions of dumpster divers because they leave a mess behind and intrude on people's property. He tries to make it sound like some kind of a wise hobby by speaking about it the way he does. As I further read the piece, I came to realize that the piece might not be written by a man at all. The author speaks of making use of embroidery kits found in the trash and calls it "a womanly art." She then goes on to suggest her old profession to be an English professor as she comments on the thrown away assignments of college students. She mentions working a government job in the past and says that she hopes for one in the future but that makes me wonder, what is her job and why did she lose it in the first place? 

The author wraps up the piece by speaking of material things which once had sentimental value to her, but no longer do, and leaves me wondering, what happened in her life that made her lose everything and degrade to dumpster diving as a source of food and shelter. Also, this piece leaves me curious about what gave the author enough credentials for the article to be published in in the New England Journal of Public Policy.