On Dumpster Diving

Bailey Ralston 

Ms. Parkinson 

English IIIB 

5 April 2016 

"On Dumpster Diving" 

Scavengers have a rough life. Many our forced to become scavengers because of their poverty or their last layoff. But often those well off do not experience these hardships and do not understand them. In an article by Lars Eighner, whom was once homeless himself, he looks back at his experience. In this retelling of his story Eighner uses the appeals of pathos. Pathos is the appeal to your emotions. Eighner wrote, "No matter how careful I am I still get dysentery at least once a month, often in warmer weather"(Eightner 718). In this sentence within the chapter you can feel for the author. Connecting to the author through his experience as well as knowing what he went through lets you understand the conditions that he goes through. You can understand that the author put himself through these experiences every month for years at a time, this creates an even deeper relationship to him. He wrote this line as if this was a normal experience and nothing was unusual with it. It was normal to him. What this does is allow for the readers to see that he subjects himself to these conditions that are considered lunacy to everyone who is not impoverished, which allows for more empathy towards the author.