It is common to walk down the street in New York City and find many Americans living in poverty, wondering how they will survive through the cold winter or how they will find their next meal. Living in severe poverty has an effect on bystanders due to stereotypes that cannot be accommodated or changed. Barbara Lazear Ascher and Lars Eighner write about poverty in their essays, “On Compassion” and “On Dumpster Diving.” Barbara Lazear Ascher focuses on the difference in interactions with certain people and Lars Eighner focuses on opportunities and convenience. With the help of relating to social classes and life lessons, the authors reveal messages about misfortune. Both authors express similar perspectives on homeless people and society,
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Watching someone crawl into the side of a dumpster and pulling out food can be disturbing to outsiders, but it can be just as embarrassing to the person performing the act. Eighner also shares practical lessons that living on the streets can offer, as well as a category of social classes for the homeless population. Scavenging has become such a popular and competitive act and is divided into series of stages that a person goes through as they learn how to scavenge. Eighner explains the first stage a scavenger feels is “disgust” and feels “ashamed.” He is disgusted with himself and feels ashamed to be seen “lurking around, trying to duck behind things…” (Pg. 144) Eighner expresses that each stage passes with experience and the scavenger goes from being shy to becoming a consumer. Scavengers have advantages they are categorized separately from homeless people. Homeless people are considered beggars, while scavengers are the “working” class of poor …show more content…
In “On Compassion”, the author gives examples of how women who feel threatened by the homeless react in situations. For example, the woman pushing her baby in a stroller offered the homeless man money when she was approached in a public area. The young woman has learned to feel compassion for the homeless and has learned to also protect herself when she feels threatened. In “On Dumpster Diving”, the author states that the homeless must learn to accept themselves in order to make it successful as a scavenger. Dumpster diving can be embarrassing but the author expresses that poor people have learned to overlook that, in order to survive in the competitive world of being a scavenger. The two authors ideas differ from each other because of the reasoning behind the essays. Ascher focuses mainly on feelings and how societies react towards the homeless. Eighner focuses on the feelings of the homeless and the special social classes that are involved in dumpster diving. The authors also differ from each other because Ascher reflects on human compassion and Eighner has experienced being homeless first
Watching someone crawl into the side of a dumpster and pulling out food can be disturbing to outsiders, but it can be just as embarrassing to the person performing the act. Eighner also shares practical lessons that living on the streets can offer, as well as a category of social classes for the homeless population. Scavenging has become such a popular and competitive act and is divided into series of stages that a person goes through as they learn how to scavenge. Eighner explains the first stage a scavenger feels is “disgust” and feels “ashamed.” He is disgusted with himself and feels ashamed to be seen “lurking around, trying to duck behind things…” (Pg. 144) Eighner expresses that each stage passes with experience and the scavenger goes from being shy to becoming a consumer. Scavengers have advantages they are categorized separately from homeless people. Homeless people are considered beggars, while scavengers are the “working” class of poor …show more content…
In “On Compassion”, the author gives examples of how women who feel threatened by the homeless react in situations. For example, the woman pushing her baby in a stroller offered the homeless man money when she was approached in a public area. The young woman has learned to feel compassion for the homeless and has learned to also protect herself when she feels threatened. In “On Dumpster Diving”, the author states that the homeless must learn to accept themselves in order to make it successful as a scavenger. Dumpster diving can be embarrassing but the author expresses that poor people have learned to overlook that, in order to survive in the competitive world of being a scavenger. The two authors ideas differ from each other because of the reasoning behind the essays. Ascher focuses mainly on feelings and how societies react towards the homeless. Eighner focuses on the feelings of the homeless and the special social classes that are involved in dumpster diving. The authors also differ from each other because Ascher reflects on human compassion and Eighner has experienced being homeless first