Removing The Stigma in Dumpster Diving

Payton Vicknair

Mrs. Parkinson

English III B

13 April 2016

Removing The Stigma In Dumpster Diving

Lars Eighner wrote a book about his adventures being homeless. We read one of the chapters from his book where he talked about dumpster diving. I know you just cringed at the thought of someone living out of a dumpster. It’s all gross to us. But the way Eighner wrote his novel didn’t make me gag or think about a dumpster as a dirty, rusty old metal bin filled with nasty maggots and rats. He made it sound like he was very experienced in what he was doing and it didn’t seem bad at all. It actually made us the reader who is living well seem like the wasteful people who could get much more out of our food and other objects we own. Eighner says, “After all, the finding of objects is becoming something of an urban art.” (713) He doesn’t see “scavenging” as bad anymore and more like saving. He would keep track of when colleges would go on breaks because the student would throw out food before so it wouldn’t spoil and it was perfectly good food. 

Eighner really makes me think. I don’t think about the stigma of people who dumpster dive anymore, but more how I can stop wasting my food and donate the food that I don’t need to homeless shelters so people who do scavenge don’t have to be watched and judged by the people walking around them who don’t understand the meaning of Eighner’s way of life. 

Of mice and men

Payton Vicknair

Mrs. Parkinson

English III

14 March 2016

Of Mice and Men

How far are people willing to go to get what they want? Some people take it to extreme levels to see the limits they can reach in people. For instance, Curley, in the book Of Mice and Men, gets angry about not getting what he wants so he decides to rage. Slim being too strong for Curley to fight, he goes against Lennie and starts picking on him, thinking he won’t do anything. He was wrong. After getting George’s permission to fight back, Lennie grabs Curley’s hand and crushes it. Slim says, “This punk sure had it comin’ to him. But-Jesus! He ain’t hardly got no han’ left.” (Steinback 64) Not only did Curley get mad and try to challenge a guy who didn’t have anything to do with the fight, he got himself into this mess and ended up with a broken hand.

I think this shows off in a lot of people around us. Ever have someone push you to your limits just to get what they want? Maybe it was you when you were younger and didn’t realize it as you pulled at your mom’s pant leg in the middle of Toy’s R Us throwing a fit because she said no to the toy you wanted.

Aspect's of writing 'The House on Mango street"

Aspect: They often employ techniques of narrative

The writer of "The House on Mango Street" uses lots of details. Lots. He talks about how the house he will one day have will "have running water and pipes that worked. And inside it will have real stairs, not hallway stairs, but stairs inside like the houses on T.V." and also how the house "would be white with trees around it, and a great big yard and grass growing without a fence." I could really see his imagination of the house that he wanted. And then he described in detail what the actual house looked like. I could just picture it clearly, with its "tight steps in front and windows so small you'd think they were holding their breath." Yes in the beginning he is describing everything bad about the house, but he isn't completely negative, just descriptive, yet in the end he says that his mom says it's only temporary. It moves to a bigger idea of, not everything is permanent, and to hold up your head, things will get better. Don't be negative.

Aspect: They deliver interesting information

In the story, the author says, " They always told us that one day we would move into a house..." and then goes into detail about the house and then ends it with, "But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told us at all." That really makes me interested in what it looked like. In the beginning with him describing all the crappy places they've been, I really wanted them to get that house he was describing. I almost started believing that they would have that dream house, but they didn't and it made me sad for them. It made me want to learn new info about the house they actually got. He tunes you into the story.



Aspect: They exhibit perceptivity

Like I said in the first aspect, the writer isn't ever negative about the descriptions of the house. When he is talking about the actual house he got he only says, "There are stairs in our house, but they're ordinary hallway stairs, and the house has only one washroom. Everybody has to share a bedroom-" Never in the text he said that it was horrible or that he hated it, just simply described it and I feel that that is him showing people to not look so negatively on things, they'll get better. As his momma said" It's only temporary" 

Catcher in the Rye 9-10

After reading the article about the rattle that no one else can hear, I immediately found a connection to Allie's baseball mitt. In the article, at the end, the author talks about all different sorts of rattles that people have, like an injured wrist hurting still even after years of recovery. She (the author) takes the simple rattle from her car and connects it to the wrist injury. Everyone has "that rattle no one else can hear" in their own way; and it relates to Holden in the exact same way.
 When Holden says, " My hand still hurts me once in awhile, when it rains", he isn't talking about his hand hurting, he's talking about missing his brother Allie. It has been awhile since his brother's died, but once in a while he will feel that ache in his heart. And it is every time he holds that left handed fielder's mitt.

Why this book?

I Looking For Alaska, because it was written by John Green. John Green wrote The Fault In Our Stars which I read and fell absolutely in love with. I read it 3 times, so when I saw that he wrote this book too and had to try it. It turns out, it was just as good as TFIOS, and that anyone who read TFIOS should definitely give Looking for Alaska a try, because if your a true die hard for TFIOS, you would definitely like other books by the author.
I also chose this book because it is a love/romance novel. I just adore books about people finding their true love and has some happy endings, but usually always has a plot twist, and I like surprises. Now, I'm not saying all love stories have surprises, but this one does and if you like those, well then I know Barnes&Noble has some copies.

Why you should consider this book.

I was going to talk about just one section of the book, and it try to persuade you to read it, but there is no one section. After I started reading the first paragraph of Looking for Alaska I couldn’t stop reading. There was no slow start into the book or a rough part to get through that was boring. It starts with a week before the main character, Miles (Pudge), goes away to boarding school; and how he never got in with the crowd at his old school. Now, if you’re a reader like me, you would want to know if he finally finds friends and gets along with his new school. But, when he gets there, he not only finds his true friends, he finds love. Only he doesn't know it yet, and thats what the book is about. It’s a story in the words of a seventeen year old boy who finally finds friends, gets to know a girl he fell in love with day one, and just talks about his life in Culver Creek High. If that isn't enough for you, there is a Before and After, so you know something big is going to happen or a major plot twist. So it is a book you will get hooked on and can't finish until the end. Until the After.

The characters

     In my book, Looking for Alaska, I am far enough to know what the characters are starting to want. For example, Pudge and Alaska have tension between them to where they are madly in love already, although they barely know each other. Alaska, unfortunately for Pudge, has a boyfriend. So, Pudge and Alaska want each other. Now the Colonel is having troubles with his girlfriend. They are both bad girl/boyfriend material, so they deserve each other, that's the only reason they're together still, so other than that, Colonel is just free. Lives day-by-day. Doesn't really want something. Not yet anyway.
   I would say that the main theme in this book is love. Finding love, losing love, and most importantly looking for love. colonel and Alaska hook him up with some girls, when really Pudge just wants Alaska, hence the title. Now my book is split up into two main parts: Before and After. Then in the Before, it is separated into days: days before the After.  The Before is when Pudge is pulled into Alaska's world and makes him fall in love with her, and After that, nothing is the same.