2.+Author's+Purpose+&+Themes

Author's Purpose Lars Eighner's obvious external purpose of writing "On Dumpster Diving" was to create a "how to guide" on dumpster diving. He aimed to help others in his situation to find the best things in dumpsters and how to know where to dive. He gave inside information and personal experience to help inform homeless and normal society of dumpster diving.

His internal purpose was to highlight the injustices of society that caused the necessity for his "how to guide" on dumpster diving. He directly elaborates on classes of people and what they discard as trash. Their wastefulness was the injustice that fed the homeless.

Theme The themes of On Dumpster Diving can be seen throughout everyday society. In Lars Eighner’s story, he concludes the wastefulness of people and how their trash can tell a story. Wealthy and normal citizens of today take for granted what they have and don’t see their wastefulness as a problem. The homeless who dumpster dive are extremely grateful for what they find due to the citizens wastefulness, and just to be able to find any food at all is a blessing to them.