America's Wandering Families by Schwartz-Nobel vs Dumpster Diving by Eighner - Essay Example

Teacher Topic:  Comparison and Contrast between two essays: On Dumpster Diving by Lars Eighner and Americas Wandering Families by Loretta Schwartz-Nobel Lars Eighner’s essay titled “On Dumpster Diving” is a personal essay in the sense that it tells the autobiographical accounts and experiences of the writer dealing with his homeless lifestyle. On another account, the essay can be considered a narrative since though the experiences are personal, they are objective and carefully considered without any intent at conveying pathos. Rather, they strike a pathetic and humorous cord simultaneously by trying to make light of extreme poverty. Nobel’s essay takes on a harsher and darker picture of poverty. It is not an essay rather more of an interview in article form of two single mothers. It deals with poverty and its manifestation in the eating habits of young Americans. Her account is one which is more factual and based less on personal experience; rather it works to express the feelings and individuals who suffer such setbacks in their lives hands-on. Both essays deal with very similar issues. Yet they focus themselves on different variations of the same problem; poverty. If we focus on Eighner’s essay, we realize that though it is a piece of easy reading, the core issues and the impact of his indifference to them makes a valid point; things have gotten so bad that ‘dumpster diving’ is nothing too serious anymore. Its commonality and the fact that a guide is needed clarifies that it is that widespread. Resorting to dumpsters for ones necessities also points out the rise of materialism, cluttering, and overall value of items which are termed as junk. Getting into the surface level of the essay, Eighner basically relates his ordeals while trudging into poverty and how he resorted to dumpsters to resist and survive. In the essay, Eighner plays upon this experience and writes a ‘guide’ to ‘dumpster diving’. For him, it becomes a kind of skill and art and he proposes that his essay is indeed a quick dumpster diving for dummies kind of text. He enlists the various items one can find, these all range from food items to electric appliances. He further tells of how to make the best use of these items and restore them into good condition. Eighner’s essay technique differs from other stories and essays in the fact that he uses a unique perspective and forces the reader to use that as a looking lens to reach the meanings he conveys. He offers an anecdote in the beginning which is characteristic of the nature his essay takes on. Eighner gives no moral conclusion but rather leaves it up to his readers to read between the lines. Critically reading Nobel’s essay, we realize that it is an exposure of the reality that many Americans face in regards to eating habits. Though statistics and health experts usually focus on obesity, Nobel, like Eighner, chooses to highlight the sidelined individuals who are not reflected by official and governmental statistics. She also uses an inversion of basic assumptions but to achieve rather different aims. Where Eighner presents poverty as a kind of amusing experience, Nobel challenges widespread notions that American people do not suffer from hunger due to poverty. She goes on to examine and expose the various experiences people have had as well as the general views that American society boasts of concerning eating and dietary habits. Nobel goes about this essay by interviewing two homeless single mothers and arbitrarily provides us with their situation in order to illustrate her point. She includes direct dialogues and complete quotations in her essay to further validate the actual feelings that such individuals have: “I bought a lot of rice and beans and Bisquick mix…bags of cereal…and powdered milk because it is cheaper and it lasts longer” (Schwartz-Nobel 257) A further use of this direct narration technique is that it allows the readers an entrance point into the lives of such people, who we are forced to realize, are not very different than us. Another example of this is when the other single mother interviewed explains that their meals are “potatoes and some macaroni and cheese, the cheep things to go with dinner” (260). It is interesting to note here that both Eighner and Nobel appeal to their audience’s basic psychology and write from those perspectives. Eighner plays upon the excitable fact that all of us may find something worthy deemed ‘junk’ by others. Nobel plays upon the commonality between all parents, and concerned adults, of their concern for eating well and eating healthy both for themselves and for their children. Nobel makes a good number of points in her article which affect the social welfare of the country. She uses her interviews and research to draw out a number of straightforward conclusions. She forces upon the readers that there are thousands of people in America who go hungry everyday and do not have enough to eat. She further links this hunger and lack of regular, healthy meals to poverty. People suffering from hunger all face poverty, regardless of any other common or uncommon feature. Once relating this reality, Nobel points out how there is enough government support for these people, who in turn, must be supported by non-government organizations. Where Eighner resists from highlighting a problem or offering any solution, Nobel makes a pronounced effort to bring about a social reform which will assist the individuals her essay centers around. If we try and identify the audiences for which Eighner and Nobel write, we can see a defined difference. First off, Eighner’s writing targets two sets of audiences. The first would be those who truly are suffering from poverty and have thus experienced dumpster diving, or at least feel the need to in order to help their financial situation. The second audience may be those who are better off than others and do not realize the benefits they have in owning various material items. He makes constant references to people who dispose of perfectly good items simply because they can: “Students throw out many good things, including food” (Eighner 203).  Nobel on the other hand, does not write at all to amuse or indirectly make a point. With a history in journalism, she produces a hard hitting case study which is meant for the more serious and the activist audience. It is needless to mention that her manner and style of writing call for serious government action to be taken about the case of diet affecting poverty. Eighner’s essay differs from Nobel’s much with reference to stylistic techniques. Where we can classify Eighner’s essay as an exercise of creative rethinking of common day situations, Nobel’s essay falls in line with rather a more hard hitting journalistic approach to writing. Eighner bases his essay on his life experiences and utilizes them to come up with an intriguing take on poverty. Nobel bases her essay on facts and incidents involving multiple institutions and further many people. Eighner writes his essay in a topic by topic address of various related issues to finding worthwhile finds in dumpsters. His essay can be neatly divided into a table of contents. His reasons for ‘dumpster diving’, what food can be eaten from dumpsters, where good dumpster locations are, and finally he contends through all the dangers of dumpster diving. The foremost ones that he talks of, which Nobel would find most appealing are that of the dangers of eaten spoiled food from these dumpsters. He stakes out the amount of food that is wasted by people and brings awareness as to how it can be harmful. He writes, “…botulism is almost certainly fatal, and often the first symptom is death.”(Eighner, 381) Amongst all the risks that are mentioned, Eighner seems to be most concerned with food and the hazards that can come as a result of ill consumption. This is a theme which is constantly covered in Nobel’s essay; poverty, hunger, and the risks that one goes through having to live in this manner. Nobel concerns herself with dealing with the hard hitting realities of collective experiences across America. Since she does not dwell on introspective or personal experiences, her narrative techniques contrast with those of Eighner significantly. Nobel works along a research based writing style. She takes the readers on tours of the various places and homeless shelters of the country which are generally unknown. She further interviews two homeless women of the condition of their meals and goes on to make a statement using their experiences. An interesting difference between the two pieces is that they both target different aspects of their audiences. Where Eighner’s essay seemingly is a brutal attack on homelessness and the means that they are driven to, it is in actuality a very logical and cool essay. Nobel’s essay is written in an objective style but actually appeals to the pathos of the reader to decipher its meaning. Eighner’s approach is a coolly calculating one divorced from all signs of negative emotion but Nobel takes on a factual piece of writing only to expose the emotionally affecting aspects of her case. Both do indeed attempt to present unique and different aspects of the same topic with varying themes. Cited Works Eighner, Lars. “On Dumpster Diving” The Threepenny Review, 1991 Schwartz-Nobel, Loretta. “America’s Wandering Families.” Acting out culture; Reading and Writing. Ed. James Miller. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 249-61. Read More