On Dumpster Diving By Lars Eighner

Throughout the novel, the author Edward Bloor uses literary devices such as similes to make the readers visualize the descriptive situations in the story. These similes describe to the reader how different occurrences relate to other actions, objects, or living things.

Diction helps shape the thoughts and perception of the reader. The author's word choice shows the shift from seriousness, sadness, and happiness. In the chapter, “A Boy,” Lowe discusses about how he is letting go of his oldest son as he goes off to college. The chapter reveals how hard it was for Lowe and talks about the good times he

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “Ligeia” has interesting examples for syntactical analysis. The diction and sentence structure in one particular paragraph reveals the narrator’s emotions and thought process. Parallelism and repetition of ideas provide further insight into the speaker’s mind. Lastly, a metaphor transforms an idea into tangible objects that add to the story’s imagery. Poe combines all of these key words, metaphors, and parallel sentences to explain the narrator’s naivety with Ligeia.

How could words be so meaningful? How could one statement be so powerful? In “As I Lay Dying” by William Faulkner, each sentence has a deeper meaning. After Addie Bundren dies, her children must carry out their mother’s wish to be buried in a distant town. Along the way, individual characters enter different physical, mental, and emotional states. By using literary tactics such as repetition, run-on sentences, italics, lists and more, Faulkner uncovers the true personality of each character during their journey.

The author’s syntax throughout the text shapes the tone of the passage and helps him get his argument across effectively. The way each paragraph is set up is that there

In the essay “My Daily Dives in the Dumpster,” Lars Eighner—an educated yet homeless individual—recounts his experience as a scavenger who seeks for his basic necessities in dumpsters. On his journey of survival in a penniless condition, Eighner has acquired important life skills and most importantly, gained valuable insights about life and materialism. Throughout his essay, Eigher employs deliberate word choice, a didactic tone, and a logical organization to convey that there is no shame in living “from the refuse of others” (Eighner) and to emphasize that materialistic possessions do not guarantee a fulfilled, happy life.

The intended audience appears to be the educated general public. Upon close examination there does not seem to be anyone specific the essay points its finger at either directly or indirectly except for the use of complicated vocabulary and phrases. Eighner does not address anyone but his diction shows he expects his audience to contain a mind capable of understanding rich vocabulary such as bohemian, dilettanti, and disparage. The author could have an argumentative essay if it was not for the great deal of drawbacks placed into the essay and left uncontradicted such as “No matter how careful I am I still get dysentery at least once a month…” (“On Dumpster Diving” from The Norton Reader page 24, paragraph 30). Due to the placement of negatives

This can mean the selection of a word or the word's tense, the arrangement of the words and the selection of the punctuation. Another utilization of syntax used by Alexie, is enumeration. “In a fit of unemployment- inspired creative energy, my father built a set of bookshelves and soon filled them with a random assortment of books about the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, the Vietnam War and the entire 23-book series of Apache Nation. By listing these examples, Alexie is putting emphasis on the books overall, instead of only giving one example which would have a less powerful effect on the reader. Enumeration also helps to merely provide the audience with more information, as he does on page 110, “We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food.” Without this listing method the reader would be left without crucial detail of Alexie's harsh life as a Native.

The author also uses rhetorical devices such as allusion seeing in his thought and dreams death, and amplification of his surrounds of murder. The author argues throughout the story if he believes their is a god after the horrors he has been through.

Some of the changes I have made on a paper that I wrote for Enc. 1102 that Dr. Dorbad has recommended that I make to improve my writing. In one of our first assignments that Dr. Dorbad had given us was to write, was a letter to an author about his essay that he had wrote. The author was Mr. Lars Eighner and his essay is My Daily Dives in the Dumpster. Some of the suggestions that I was given were to properly cite the author when I am quoting him/her, I had wrote “I prefer the term scavenging and use the word scourging when I mean to be obscure”. This is how I wrote it on the rough draft, I fixed it for the final by adding (Eighner, 114). Another example of work I had fixed was I had a lot of punctuation errors, an example of this was

Materialism is the constant obtaining of commodity while sacrificing human relationships. For decades people have had the notion that obtaining materialistic goods is a portrait of success. In the essay “On Dumpster Diving” Lars Eighner stated that he learned “The first is to take what I can use and let the rest go. I have come to think that there is no value in the abstract. A thing I cannot use or make useful, perhaps by trading, has no value, however fine or rare it may be.” (593). Materialism is harmful in multiple ways on society, labor, and the environment.

In addition to diction, another important stylistic approach to conveying a rhetorical purpose is Ehrlich’s use of syntax, her use of detailed syntax is seen in the following: “…I'm aching to see is horse flesh, the glint of a spur, a line on distant mountains, brimming creeks...". In this instance, Ehrlich uses specifically placed, powerful words to provide her audience with imagery, a powerful tool for arguing her rhetorical

Varying the length and context allows for more dynamic sentences. Although the use of effective syntax may be deeply embedded into a paragraph, when discovered it can be extremely influential. An example of effective syntax of on page 225, as it states “The fawn was waiting, quivering. Its tail hung wet and its ears dropped. It ran to him and tried to find shelter behind him. He ran around the house to the back door. The fawn bounded close behind him. The kitchen door latched.” Short and to the point syntax is effective as the storm was coming and time was limited, therefore Jody and the fawn were swift with their actions, as was the sentence structure. Another significant example of syntax is on page 6, as the author writes “He moved a stone that was matching its corners against his sharp ribs and burrowed a little, hollowing himself a nest for his hips and shoulders.” She proceeds to finish with, “He slept.” The two paragraphs vary immensely in length, as the first sentence in the paragraph contains 26 words and concludes with two words. The complexity of the sentence length undergoes a drastic change in an effective manner. Finally, the most prominent use of syntax in the four brief pages is on page 7 as the writer states, “He stopped short.” This sentence is so effective because the sentence length is “short”, therefore mimicking the action of the character. All of Rawling’s effective uses of syntax are clever ways of influential writing, and contributed to her 1939 Pulitzer

For instance, this becomes helpful in categorizing the examples of hardship made throughout the story, as when Death has an odd way of narrating especially when he exclaims “Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It's the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me" (Zusak 243). This summation of Death’s style of narration and his management of people have an eloquent yet blunt way of saying something. Not only does this quote perfectly sum up Death’s style of narration, but it also has truth behind it regarding the famous assumption that a journey is more significant than a destination. In addition, there exists a certain element of description that pieces the whole book together with its powerful ways such as: “Upon her arrival, you could still see the bite marks of snow on her hands and the frosty blood on her fingers. Everything about her was undernourished. Wirelike shins. Coat hanger arms. She did not produce it easily, but when it came, she had a starving smile” (Zusak 31). When presented with this quote, one can imagine a skinny frostbitten girl with a forsaken smile. The element of description does a great job in allowing the reader to visualize what the brutality of her trip has done to her. All together, these examples of mode assist the reader in creating an understanding of the

Grice's eloquent language leads the reader on a clear map through his modes of both process and narration. Juxtaposed to his topic of disorder, the author presents many processes in his essay rather orderly. The first example contains a small explanation of the widow's perplexing eating and hunting habits. He explains the many uses of the widow's, "remarkable web" (4 Grice) as well as its insatiable appetite, while