Modes - Text Examples

Definition

the word Dumpster: I learned from them that it is a proprietary word belonging to the Dempsey Dumpster company.

Narration

I began Dumpster diving about a year before I became homeless.

Definition

I prefer the word scavenging and use the word scrounging when I mean to be obscure. I have heard people, evidently meaning to be polite, use the word foraging, but I prefer to reserve that word for gathering nuts and berries and such, which I do also according to the season and the opportunity.

Narration

While Lizbeth and I were still living in the shack on Avenue B as my savings ran out, I put almost all my sporadic income into rent. The necessities of daily life I began to extract from Dumpsters. Yes, we ate from them.

Exemplification

Except for jeans, all my clothes came from Dumpsters. Boom boxes, candles, bedding, toilet paper, a virgin male love doll, medicine, books, a typewriter, dishes, furnishings, and change, sometimes amounting to many dollars.

Compare/Contrast

Perhaps everyone who has a kitchen and a regular supply of groceries has, at one time or another, made a sandwich and eaten half of it before discovering mold on the bread or got a mouthful of milk before realizing the milk had turned. Nothing of the sort is likely to happen to a Dumpster diver because he is constantly reminded that most food is discarded for a reason.

Classification

Descriptions of different kinds of food found in dumpsters and their relative safety

Cause/Effect

Students throw food away around breaks because they do not know whether it has spoiled or will spoil before they return.

Exemplification

Many juices or other beverages are too acidic or too syrupy to cause much concern, provided they are not visibly contaminated. I have discovered nasty molds in the vegetable juices, even when the product was found under its original seal; I recommend that such products be decanted slowly into a clear glass. Liquids always require some care.

Process Analysis

I have learned that there is a predictable series of stages a person goes through in learning to scavenge.

Cause/Effect

I tend to gain weight when I am scavenging. Partly this is because I always find far more pizza and doughnuts than water-packed tuna, nonfat yogurt, and fresh vegetables.

Cause/Effect

To live on the street I must anticipate my needs to a certain extent: I must pick up and save warm bedding I find in August because it will not be found in Dumpsters in November.

Compare/Contrast

In poorer areas, Dumpsters, if attended with sufficient diligence, can be made to yield a livelihood. The rich students discard perfectly good kiwi fruit; poorer people discard perfectly good apples.

Cause/Effect

People scrounge cans because they have to have a little cash.

Compare/Contrast

Can scroungers will even go through individual garbage cans, something I have never seen a scavenger do.

Cause/Effect

Going through individual garbage cans without scattering litter is almost impossible. Litter is likely to reduce the public’s tolerance of scavenging.

Exemplification

Dumpsters contain bank statements, correspondence, and other documents, just as anyone might expect.

Process Analysis

By far the best way to go through a Dumpster is to lower yourself into it.

Cause/Effect

A thing I cannot use or make useful, perhaps by trading, has no value however rare or fine it may be.