Name__________________________________________Date___________________
Lars Eighner’s “On Dumpster Diving”
1. Eighner is careful to offer definitions of key terms that he uses. List those key
terms and their definitions.
2. Summarize Eighner’s analysis of the practical stages through which a beginning
Dumpster diver goes. What does his analysis tell us about the larger experience of
having to scavenge for food?
3. Choose an adjective that you feel best defines Eighner’s writing style. Then,
provide a rationale for that adjective.
4. What does Eighner’s writing style tell you about his views on his way of life?
5. What is the metaphorical significance/observation of this piece?
6. How does reading Eighner make you feel about your own material values? How
do you relate to Dumpster diving and to what he calls the “grab for the gaudy
bauble”?
7. Explain how Eighner uses the rhetorical mode pathos in this piece. Be sure to
provide examples from the text.
Lars Eighner’s “On Dumpster Diving”
Double-Sided Journal
Evidence from Text
Literary Terminology
1.
Antithesis
2.
3.
Anaphora
1.
Alliteration
2.
1.
Personification
2.
1.
2.
Imagery
3.
Irony