Questions on Eighner

1. Eighner is careful to offer definitions of the key terms he uses. List those key terms and their definitions. Dumpster is a proprietary word belonging to the Dempster Dumpster Company. He prefers the word “scavenger” over the word “dumpster diver”. He also uses words such as “foraging” instead of “digging through trash.”  

2. Summarize the practical stages a Dumpster diver goes through. What does Eighner’s analysis tell us about the larger experience of having to scavenge for food? A dumpster diver will feel ashamed at first and usually will “dive” at night. They are not as aware of the bacteria and what foods will be better for them. Eventually, the longer you have dumpster dived, the more you figure out certain locations of certain dumpsters. You know what ones have the best food, which ones have useful items such as clothing, electronics, and change.  He also explains what to get from dumpsters during certain months.

3. What does his writing style tell you about his views on his way of life? Explain with examples.

His writing shows that he is very educated. His uses big words like, “dutifully” or “maliciously”. He seems real humble, and yet real careful of what he is taking out of dumpsters. He knows what types of bacteria he can get from eating certain foods. He takes only the necessities. Once on his feet again, he is very aware of what he is throwing away.

4. How does reading Eighner make you feel about your own material values? How do you relate to Dumpster diving and to what he calls the “grab for the gaudy bauble” (par. 79)? It made me realize we waste a lot of food in this country, and we discard a lot of items that can still be useful. We take things for granite. And society will automatically look down on homelessness, or always look away. 

Questions on Ehrenreich

1.      Why does Ehrenreich so dislike management? Consider her response to the meeting at the beginning of the essay, and her confrontations with Stu throughout. Do you think she’s right to be untrusting of management?

·         Because a lot of people who get a management position become hypocrites and shady. They don’t really seem to care about the employees. They like to abuse their authority. In the mandatory meeting there was no “we” as a team, it seemed the regional manager only talked about how lazy, and filthy the employees were. Stu was a hypocrite, because he was the one suspected of doing drugs, while he told the team that there would be mandatory drug screening.

2.      What are some of the ways that Ehrenreich’s fellow workers live? What kinds of homes do they have (or not have)? Write out at least three examples. 

·         Every worker she asked had very poor living conditions. Andy lives on a dry docked boat (small 20 ft. vessel).   Joan lives in a van she parks behind a shopping center.  And Tina lives in a hotel that’s $60 a night.

3.      Does Ehrenreich’s background (especially the way she grew up) contribute to why she does this project or how she believes about low-income workers? Give some examples of why.

·         Her parents were hard working, blue collar citizens. Her father was a copper miner, who went to school and became senior executive at the Gillette Corporation. Her mother was a liberal Democrat. This might have sparked her interest in her experiment. It sounds like her mother was really into politics and protesting, and talked a lot about racial injustice.

4.      Ehrenreich is working these jobs and attempting to live on low-income wages in spite of the fact that she has a “real” job (she’s a biology professor at a university in Florida) at the time she’s writing this (she took a break for a few months in order to do this experiment). Can she really understand what it is to be a waitress? Why or why not?

·         I think she did understand the struggles of waitressing. She did it for a while, and actually got two jobs and she observed every detail. She engaged in many conversations with the employees as well. Plus she only had a little money to start. I thought she captured and experienced restaurant work perfectly. This could also affect her normal life, once she goes out to eat. She will respect their profession more and probably tip better in the future, or not complain as much because she actually got to put herself in their shoes.

5.      Towards the end of the essay, the management gives a waitress the “gift” of being able to live out of her car on the motel property. Ehrenreich interprets this gift as cruel, and feels that the management should’ve gone more out of their way to help the waitress. Others have criticized Ehrenreich for this view and claimed that the manager was giving more than he had to in this case. What do you think? How responsible should an employer be for aiding an employee?

·         I think the management could help out more with making sure the health benefits were properly processed, and maybe help with letting them have “free” food, and proper breaks. As far as housing, what can you do? I know I wouldn't have the money to lend for housing. Management can only help so much. There is good management and corrupt management. It all depends on what type of person they are.

Descriptive Writing Exercise

Descriptive Writing Exercise

For each of the following three sentences, I want you to write a 75 word paragraph that “shows” instead of “tells.” (See handout in D2L.)

1.      She was depressed.

Her heart felt heavy and dark. Her eyes were like the cold grey skies of a dreary long winter, swollen like clouds filled with rain about to burst. The Shades in her room were drawn and the lights were off as she listened to the same sad song over and over, that gave her a lump in her throat and mad her insides want to rupture. It was an overwhelming feeling of torrent as the record played quietly and crackled in the room. She pulled the sheets over her head, only to try to sleep and pray she never wakes up.

2.      The car was nice.

As I entered the sales floor of the luxurious automobiles, one really caught my eye. This car had all the bells and whistles. The outside appearance looked glossy, a sleek dark green with chrome pinstripes and molding like I’ve never seen before. It was almost dreamlike. It took on the shape of an U.F.O of some sort. The interior was even more extraordinary. Instead of a steering wheel, there was a headset that you put on like virtual reality goggles. There was a black onyx sphere in the center of the console where all you had to do is think of a song, or radio station and it would play. You could also control the heat, air, and get directions. The seats were a thin strip that molded to your body like a Saran wrap hammock. It had a garbage disposal unit in the middle between both seats. It did not run on gasoline. Nor did it run on water, or oil. The best part about this vehicle, it ran off of human emotions. You were this vessel’s battery.

Free write 2

A plague of tics reading exercise , Q & A's

“A Plague of Tics” Critical Reading Exercise

Complete this assignment after you read “A Plague of Tics” by David Sedaris. Each response should be a paragraph with at least 8 sentences, preferably 12-15. You can either post your responses to your blog or print them out and add them to your journal.

  

1. List at least 10 of Sedaris’s tics and try to establish some general rules that make them tics and not more socially acceptable repeated motions or habits.

1 .Licking light switches

2. Pressing his nose against the refrigerator

3. Touching door knob with his elbows

4. Violently shaking his head back and fourth

5. Counting his steps on the way home from school

6.  Rocking back and forth on his bed

7. Tapping the soles of his shoes on his forehead

8. Licking mailboxes

9. Pressing his face against hot hoods of cars

10. Jabbing a butter knife into electrical sockets

All of these are not considered to be socially acceptable habits by society. They are considered not “normal”. Whereas certain habits like “smoking” or “biting your nails” are considered to be more socially acceptable habits.

2. What are some tics or habits that you have? Are they more socially acceptable than Sedaris’? Why do you think that is?

I have a smoking habit. It is more socially acceptable than Sedaris’s habits, because society says it is. Not because I say it is. It’s the way we are taught from the beginning of our lives. If we were taught to wear rotten fish carcasses on our heads as the norm, then it would be known as “normal”.

3. What do you think the point of this essay is? (Prove it with examples from the text.)  

This essay discusses the plight of a child growing into an adult while struggling with a debilitating psychological disorder, OCD. It seems that this child wants is to fit into what is considered to be normal and this becomes more evident as the child grows into a teenager and then into a young adult college student. He cannot seem to find a way to be normal until college where he turns to drugs and alcohol as a means of self-medication. This story is the journey of the author through life, learning how to cope with abnormal behavior and lack of parietal support. Everyone wants to fit in and be normal and for this author perhaps sharing his story brings light to that struggle for those with psychological disorders as well as healing for his own personal past.

Why I am going to college

Andrew Warren

Hertzog

September 1, 2014

CCR 092

Why I am going to college

            I wanted to take a different perspective on this paper and explain why I want to go to college. I would like to put you in my shoes for a moment and show what my typical daily routine is like so that you can get a better understanding of what pushed me into taking this different path into my already busy life.

            I have been cooking for about fifteen years. I started from the bottom dishwashing, then moved up to cooking on the line, sous chef, and now I am an executive chef. I wake up every day a few hours before I have to go to work. I work anywhere from 9 to 12 hours a day. Working in a restaurant is far from glamorous; it is not like what you see on the cooking channel or travel channel.  It is extremely hot in the kitchen, and most kitchen workers will end up getting cut or burned at some point in their career. Most restaurant workers can kiss their weekends goodbye and have to work all of the major holidays, cutting into family their time. It has a major effect on your body as well. I have sore feet, back problems, and bad knees. The pay is not that much for all of this strenuous work either. One day I finally said, “I’m getting to old for this”. I am tired of living pay check to pay check. On my days off I like to do art, paint, sculpt, or create something. One day I thought to myself, “I wish I could do this for a living”. So I decided enough was enough, I wanted to go to college so I can have a better life for myself. I want a career that I enjoy. I want to go to work and feel like I am not actually going to work. I want to be able to enjoy time with my family. I want to be able to have a Thanksgiving Day off. But, this is not the full reason why I want to go to college. When I told my mother that I wanted to go to college, she said “You won’t make it. You were never really that good at school.” I would like to prove my mother wrong. I know I can be successful in college and I know that I will enjoy being creative in graphic arts.