On Dumpster Diving Analysis

Every person's life is filled with personal stories, significant to them. Memoirists are able to take these stories and turn them into a piece of writing which holds an underlying connection all readers can identify with. They take the events of their life, sorrowful or joy filled, and portray it in a way that people they can see themselves in. Writers can craft a memoir where an experience that may seem insignificant to the reader can become a story with meaning that resonates with it’s audience now and for years to come. Memoirs are written to connect people, to write about a timeless, universal truth all people can relate to. That is their power, possibility and purpose. In order to achieve this level of memoir it takes time, hard work and

He talks about how one can survive off the things he can scavenge from a dumpster and what this way of life has taught him. Though many people reading this have probably never been homeless or needed to dumpster dive, Eighner is still able to demonstrate the purpose, power and possibility of memoir. Towards the end of his writing he talks about how this experience has shaped his view of materialistic things and how much value we place on them as a society. Many people can now relate to this, that feeling of needing a new object or basing their happiness on the things they own. The audience is able to see themselves reflected in the people Eighner describes, they can connect and look upon themselves through this memoir. Eighner describes a “lived daily life” and does so by “reporting honestly”, two things Kunkel says are very important for a memoir. Though Eighner is talking about the struggles he’s faced he does so with no pity or anger, he states his experiences with dumpster diving and does so with truth.

E.B White was also able to achieve connecting with his reader through his writing. In his memoir Afternoon of an American Boy White recalls his first crush. Something all people can and will be able to relate to. They can identify with the nervousness White describes and be brought back to when their first crush caused them teenage