Cassia Busch
Mrs. Parkinson
English III
April 5 2016

     In On Dumpster Diving, Eighner writes of his days of dumpster diving, or scavenging, in this article. Most people think of dumpster diving as disgusting and the scavengers as even more so, however, Eighner writes in a way to remove the stigma of those people who scavenge to stay alive. He does this by explaining the logic of dumpster diving. In his article, he simply "teaches" the readers how to and what it means to scavenge. He makes the audience realize that the scavengers do this to stay alive not because they want to when he writes "At first the new scavenger is filled with disgust and self-loathing. He is ashamed of being seen," (Eighner 718). This helps remove the stigma of people who dumpster dive because we realize that they are just like us but they have an unfortunate situation. He also removes stigma when he goes through his thought process and mental planning of when he finds food for example when he talks about the three things you have to consider "Using the senses and common sense to evaluate the condition of the found materials, knowing the dumpsters of a given area and checking them regularly, and seeking always to answer the question 'Why was this discarded?'" (Eighner 714). Through these processes and by making the audience take a step back and think about the scavenger and what they actually think about when they dive, Eighner helps remove the stigma or disgrace previously given to poor people that dumpster dive to stay alive.

Of Mice and Men Inquiry Activity

Busch, 1

Cassia Busch

Mrs. Parkinson

English III

14 March 2016

Of Mice and Men Inquiry Activity

Looking at the characters of the book, how do things out of our control like race or where we were born affect our lives, and shape us into the people we are?

During The Dust Bowl, African American were treated unfairly. In Of Mice and Men, we see how someone, Crooks, can be negatively shaped from the actions of other people. In chapter four, when Lennie talks to Crooks, Crooks says “S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunkhouse and play rummy ‘cause you was black.” (Steinbeck, 72). Crooks has been living on the farm, facing oppression slowly shaped him into a solitary, pessimistic, lonely man. We see this when Crooks tells Lennie “I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.” (Steinbeck, 73)

My own grandmother was shaped by how she grew up.  At 13, she moved from Greece to the United States. She lived in a poor house where neither parent spoke English and she learned Greek traditions. As an adult, she enrolled in college, but dropped out when she got married because it was “proper” for her to stay home with the kids. My grandfather was the main provider for the family. My grandmother had grown up with someone taking care of her and the same was true when she got married. She had slowly been shaped into being dependent on others.

Renaissance Writers

Cassia Busch

Mrs. Parkinson

English III

7 March 2016

     From the reading of “Tableau” by Countee Cullen, we find that Cullen and other Renaissance writers have hope for a future America where white and black people get along and work in unison. I believe Cullen uses children as the focus point of his poem because while white adults have grown thinking that African Americans inferior to them, children haven’t learned racism yet and do not see anything wrong with befriending kids of different ethnicities. Cullen writes, “Oblivious to look and word / They pass and see no wonder / That lightning brilliant as a sword / Should blaze the path of thunder” (9-12). This quote is very powerful because they are oblivious to the other people watching their out of the ordinary behavior, and they are just having fun together. It shows that their friendship is as normal and ordinary as thunder and lightning, and they don’t see anything abnormal about it.