How Does Lars Eighner Use Irony In On Dumpster Diving

Lars Eighner gives an account of his life as a homeless person in “On Dumpster Diving.” In this account, Eighner frequently uses the literary device of irony to contribute to his description of diving and scavenging ethics. One such example of irony in Eighner’s account is, “[s]tudents throw food away around breaks because they do not know whether it has spoiled or will spoil before they return” (16). The author further elaborates on this point by using the example of a half jar of peanut butter, which is an item some college students regularly discard. Those college students fail to acknowledge that “nonorganic peanut butter does not require refrigeration and is unlikely to spoil in any reasonable time” (Eighner 16). Thus, they often, “will not take a chance” of keeping potentially spoiled products; after all, they are spending,

In the example, the author is criticizing college students who are throwing away food that is safe for consumption only because their parents are paying for the food. Here, the reader may expect that the students are throwing away the food because it is spoiled, but the author misdirects the reader, as the food is not spoiled. Instead, the college students themselves are spoiled. By being spoiled, those college students are unable to realize just how privileged they are and that they have certain luxuries at their disposal that other people do not.

Moreover, the example above also contributes to Eighner’s description of diving and scavenging ethics by showing the reader that some people, particularly, college students, are wasteful and that Eighner is simply making use of what they are throwing out. Eighner is, “[taking] what [he] can use and [letting] the rest go by. . . .