Poverty has been looked at from two different prospective. You can be in poverty based on either a lack of ambition, or certain circumstances that may have taken place in your life. Anna Quindlen author of Homeless and Lars Eighner author of On Dumpster Diving are both located on the circumstance side of the spectrum. To be on the circumstance side of the spectrum you may have encountered a tragic event in your lifetime, for example the loss of a job. To be placed on the lack of ambition side of the spectrum, you have all the tools to be successful; however, you may be procrastinating or you just don’t care enough. I believe that the people who are in poverty are there because of certain circumstances. Poverty affects many people on a daily basis and Anna Quindlen and lars Eighner bring to light some of poverties harsh …show more content…
Eighner describes was on how to identify the good foods versus the bad foods in dumpsters. “Eating safely from the dumpsters involves three principles: using the sense of common sense to evaluate the condition of the found materials, knowing the dumpsters of a given area and checking them regularly, and seeking ways to answer the question “Why was this discarded?” (Eighner 647).” Eighner also discusses some of the things he dislikes, for instance can scroungers. Can scroungers make a mess of everything in their way, they will pass up a good pair of shoes, to where they are destroyed (680). There are other things you have to take into consideration when you are dumpster diving Another thing Eighner was particular about was peoples personal trash. People in homes or apartments do not produce enough useful items to homeless (680); therefore, Eighner tries to avoid them as much as possible. Dumpster diving you can take as you please, and how much you desire; yet Eighner sums his story up to take what is
Although Eighner reveals that his chosen lifestyle was to live on another's refuge, he kept in accordance with his acts of superiority and snobbishness by excluding himself from the term "Dumpster Diving." Instead, he preferred to be called a "scavenger because of its frankness in the term." (Eighner, 1993). Furthermore, Eighner, explains that there are rules to abide by when successfully "scavenging" through dumpsters, "using the senses…knowing the dumpsters of a given area…. [and] Why was this discarded?" It is the explanation of the three guidelines Eighner asserts to be superior to 'can scroungers' (Homeless people who rummage through the dumpsters for money). The author further elaborates his snobbishness by revealing that he has tried the heinous lifestyle of "can scroungers," and deduced that only a few dollars could be obtained. Moreover, Eighner states, "one can extract the necessities of life from the dumpsters directly with far less effort than would be required to accumulate the equivalent of cans." (Eighner, 1993). The author stereoty...
Mark Peterson’s 1994 photograph, Image of Homelessness, compares the everyday life of the working class to the forgotten life of the lowest class in society. In the image, the viewer can see a troubled homeless man wrapped in a cocoon of standard manipulated 12in by 12in cardboard boxes and yarn. The yarn is what is keeping the man and box tied to the red bench. This bench has chipped paint and is right in front of a black fence. Underneath the bench is dirt and debris from the dead fall leaves. The center focal point is the homeless man on the bench. He is the focal point because he is the greatest outsider known to man. Behind this man is vibrant life. There is pulsating people crossing the clean street, signs of life from all the advertising on store windows, families walking and blurred cars filled with
Although poverty has minimized, it is still significant poverty which is characterized by a numerous amount of things. There are two types of poverty case and insular. “Case poverty is the farm family with the junk-filled yard and the dirty children playing in the bare dirt” (Galbraith 236)Case poverty is not irretraceable and usually caused if someone in the household experiences “ mental deficiency, bad health, inability to adapt to the discipline of industrial life, uncontrollable procreation, alcohol, some educational handicap unrelated to community shortcomings” (Galbraith 236).Case poverty is often blamed on the people for their shortcomings but on some levels can be to pinpoint one person's shortcomings that caused this poverty. Most modern poverty is insular and is caused by things people in this community cannot control. “The most important characteristic of insular poverty is forces, common to all members of the community, that restrain or prevent participation in economic life and increase rates of return.
Though Eighner initially found dumpster diving as a “new scavenger” filled with “disgust and self-loathing”, he ultimately regarded it as a piece of “art.” Matter of fact, he viewed it as something that “not everyone was capable of doing”. While Dumpster Diving for years, Eighner realized how people, specifically the "can scroungers, did not respect the community by allowing others to use what they did not." Although ethics in a community that is on the verge of survival by mere trash seems unreal, they still exist. Eighner shows that although these people were stricken with hardships they are still humans and most retain common
The author, Lars Eighner explains in his informative narrative, “On Dumpster Diving” the lifestyle of living out of a dumpster. Eighner describes the necessary steps to effectively scavenge through dumpsters based on his own anecdotes as he began dumpster diving a year before he became homeless. The lessons he learned from being a dumpster diver was in being complacent to only grab what he needs and not what he wants, because in the end all those things will go to waste. Eighner shares his ideas mainly towards two direct audiences. One of them is directed to people who are dumpster divers themselves, and the other, to individuals who are unaware of how much trash we throw away and waste. However, the author does more than direct how much trash
Eighner writes, “Long before I began Dumpster diving I was impressed with Dumpsters, enough so that I wrote the Merriam research service to discover what I could about the world “Dumpster”. I learned from them that “Dumpster” is a proprietary word belonging to the Dempsey Dumpster company.” He was so fascinated with Dumpsters, that he learned the definition, which is a fact. A definition can be adjusted; however, it is not completely revised. Definitions are definite. Eighner states, “Eating from the Dumpsters involves three principles: using the senses and common sense to evaluate the condition of the found materials, knowing the Dumpsters of a given area and checking them regularly, and seeking always to answer the question, ‘Why was this discarded?’” He uses his senses to analyze the condition of the things he finds logically. Dumpster diving requires the ability to critically think about what can and can not be eaten. Eighner writes, “Although very rare with modern canning methods, botulism is a possibility. But botulism is almost certainly fatal and often the first symptom is death.” He uses knowledge to understand what the expectations of some foods, especially canned foods, should be. While Eighner uses all three persuasive appeals in his writing, ethos is the most
One of the main causes of poverty is a lack of money. There are some families that do have at least one person employed in the household but the money earned is not enough to provide for the family. Tough decisions such as paying rent buying groceries become a daily challenge for struggling households. Those living in households headed by people with no high school degree are the most likely to enter poverty. Limited options in the job market make it hard for those without degrees the ability to find jobs that will pay above minimum wage. Many Americans earn less than the nation’s median income which hinders most Americans from living a life free of hunger. Children who grow up in poverty suffer more persistent, frequent, and severe health problems than do children who grow up under better financial circumstances. Children of poverty are at an extreme disadvantage and cycle ends up repeating itself until the pattern is somehow
Everyone knows what the word poverty means. It means poor, unable to buy the necessities to survive in today's world. We do not realize how easy it is for a person to fall into poverty: A lost job, a sudden illness, a death in the family or the endless cycle of being born into poverty and not knowing how to overcome it. There are so many children in poverty and a family's structure can effect the outcome. Most of the people who are at the poverty level need some type of help to overcome the obstacles. There are mane issues that deal with poverty and many things that can be done to stop it.
In talking about poverty, it is very broad. You can talk about poverty in our lives, poverty in spiritual life, and other things that we experienced poverty. Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not being able to go to school, not knowing how to read, and not being able to speak properly. Poverty is not having job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, and lack of freedom.
It’s shown satirically on television, made fun of in music, and joked about in day-to-day activities: being homeless. I don’t understand what’s so funny about being homeless. The struggle to stay alive in an uninviting climate with nothing but the clothes on your back, doesn’t seem very fun. Yet in the media, being homeless is still treated like a joke. In the essay “Homeless” by Anna Quindlen, the reader is shown what it truly means to be without a home. My view on the struggles that homeless people have to endure is very similar to that of Quindlen’s in her essay, which perfectly captured the reality of what it is like to be without a home, and what it truly means to be homeless; while simultaneously demonstrating to me the negative effect
every aspect and institution in a society work as one to create a function; these institutions are said to be
Poverty is “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions” (Merriam-Webster dictionary, 2015); in other words, struggling to provide a comfortable living style. It is the cause of family stress and many other problems, especially for the children. Millions of people around the world are struggling with poverty; families suffering to provide enough food seem to be growing in numbers. According to the United States Census Bureau, the poverty rate was highest in the 1960s and decreased greatly in the 1970s. However, it is now slowly starting to increase again. Recently released census data by the Bureau showed that one in five people are living in poverty (Census Bureau, 2014). Poverty is even
The question is, what is poverty? Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs of life, including food, clothing, and shelter. Nevertheless I believe that poverty is much more that not having enough money. The World Bank Organization describes poverty as, “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is the lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty
There are two ways to categorize poverty from a sociologist viewpoint. Absolute poverty simply refers to the condition in which one is unable to afford the necessities of life, whereas relative poverty refers to the condition in which one is unable to afford that which is considered a normal standard of living in society. Absolute poverty is far more worse than relative poverty because they could quite possible not have a house or food to live on for everyday survival. There are basically five different categories in which each poverty stricken person can be placed in. The first category are those who are not able to work because they are too old, too young, disabled, or tied down by social responsibility. The second category are those who are able and qualified to work but can not find work. The third category are those who are not equipped to fill available jobs either because they are undereducated or because their skills have become outdated. The fourth category are those whose social and personal problems have brought them to a point of self-defeating discouragement. The last category are those who are underpaid, or unable to get a fair price for what they have to sell. After defining which people are in poverty, these categories can answer my question of why are they in poverty and how they can be helped.
What is poverty? Well, according to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, poverty is "lack of money or material possessions; poor." Two-thirds of the world's population fits this definition. I know that many times we think of being poor as not being able to buy the car we want or take the trip we can only dream about. However, being poor, living in poverty, hits a lot lower than that. For example, a resident of the country of Chad will only bring in $100 each year. Since many people can make more than that in one week, some in one day, can you imagine having the feed a family of five or six, or even a family of two, on only $100 a year? These are the conditions that exist in poverty-stricken countries.