My Daily Dives in the Dumpster Response Essay Example

of his personal experience, if the last few paragraphs were taken out it would literally be nothing more than a beginner’s guide for dumpster diving. He explains all the steps of transition, gives tips on what to look for, what to keep in mind, where to look, what times to look, and some of his trial and errors.

This is not the point of the essay though; it is a guide for the average consumer as well, a lesson. The piece isn’t a guide for diving; he uses it as a buildup to explain how came to his message: “I find from the experience of scavenging two rather deep lessons. The first is to take what I can use and let the rest go. I have come to think that there is no value in the abstract. A thing I cannot use or make useful perhaps by trading, has no value, however rare or fine it might be.”

This is the message he conveys, that people need to become more appreciative of what they have, that maybe they should think before their next purchase “Do I really ‘need’ this? ” and ask themselves if it is really beneficial for them. People should be thinking more, reflecting on life, just standing in awe of everything around them and not being so focused on what they can buy next. He is saying that there is more two life than stuff, even if it doesn’t last forever “The second lesson is the transience of material being. I do not suppose that ideas are immoral, but certainly they are longer-lived than material objects.”

Lars is teaching

people that they need to let go of their materialistic behaviors because they will never find happiness that way. He states that yes he’d be happier with a consumer life but his effort is rewarded daily and he is content with his life. He knows there will always be enough out there for him, it is the shoppers that constantly want more that he pities, they can’t fill the void of happiness with objects. So he closes with “Between us and the rat-race millions who have confounded their selves with the objects they grasp and who nightly scavenge the cable channels looking for they know not what. I am sorry for them”.