The problem of homeless people that became Dumpsters is discussed in Eighner’s essay and the novel written by Walls, providing a deeper insight into the matter and triggering a need to address it.
The prevailing reaction of most people is associated with astonishment while reading Eighner’s essay On Dumpster Diving. Every sentence reveals new details about the everyday life of homeless people who practice scavenging on a regular basis. Dumpsters are not only searching for foods and clothes in rubbish bins, those are people who form a specific cultural group with characteristic lifestyle, philosophy, and preferences. Scavenging can be compared to some kind of work because searching for the right things is not a simple task. It is necessary to determine which food is safe, what are the best periods to rummage in the rubbish bin, what city-regions offer fresh and safe goods (Eighner, 1992). Overall, Dumpsters tend to express more value towards the things, they take advantage and opportunity from every single item.
When comparing personal reactions On Dumpster Diving and The Glass Castle, some similar and contrasting points are evident. First, the common aspect between the two literary works is the reaction towards homeless people and how they survive. Dumpsters are not ashamed of their social status, they rather find scavenging as a challenge (Walls, 2006). The contrasting point is associated with the depth of perception – while Eighner describes a daily routine and general description of such lifestyle, the story of Rose Mary is tangled into a complex infrastructure of social attitudes and interpersonal relationships. Anyway, her daughter Jeannette is deeply concerned about her mother and suffers from being surrounded by luxury stuff. Jeannette’s attitudes towards her mother and her traits of character evolve sympathy in readers.
The details of Dumpster life make people astonished because the number of homeless people tends to increase. The two literary works thoroughly discuss the scope of the problem within an individual and global context.
References
Eighner, L. (1992). On Dumpster Diving. New England Journal of Public Policy, 8(1), 87-95.
Walls, J. (2006). The Glass Castle. New York, NY: Scribner.