Dumpster Diving

Teresa Gowan, a Sociology professor in the U, released a book called Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco in 2006. The book depicts a series of homeless people, living a romanticized life of homelessness. Okay, being a homeless is not easy but the book is trying to humanize them and show the readers how these homeless people build their dignity—or even, seek the meaning of life, as a recycler, dumpster divers, etc.

Quentin, a young upper class man with good education, decided to live on the street among other homeless man and work proudly as a dumpster diver. Or perhaps we shall call it 'treasure hunter'. Because really, he and his friends weren't just dumpster diving for living, but for play and creativity. This is one of the principles in his life. "Demands of dope should not be allowed to overwhelm the important business of play and creativity". Their other principle is (they only have two basic principles)"it was not only necessary, but desirable to get by without the tawdry comforts of the domesticated masses." Indeed, living a dumpster diving life gives them a chance to live outside the system, '. "We don't buy into some big old economic system, work for the man, buy a bunch of crap. We just go out foraging for stuff." 

Essentially, it is not necessarily the action (dumpster diving, treasure hunt) that gives meaning to their life, but the idea behind it. The feeling of being able to be different, the self-respect they gain to live without comfort, the excitement of treasure hunting, and the sense of achievement they get when they earn something unique. One day, Quentin's gang broke into a storage cellar at a hospital where they found a "full size plastic reproduction of a skeleton, which they gleefully hung in a tree next to their camp and nicknamed 'Mama' "(89). The skeleton was probably just a cheap mass produced plastic skeleton, but the idea of seeing its 'true' value is what makes this skeleton special. Quentin described this best: "dumpster diving is like archaeology, really. You are looking for treasures other folks can't see... But that would involve actually opening their eyes and using their brains... And they are just buying more and more junk every day, even though the planet is choking with all this crap." (88).

I want to go back again to the idea of “play and creativity” which become the emphasis in their life. This is very similar to Wordsworth’s line “the child is father of the man.” There is a theory that says capitalism is the epitome of civilization, therefore we can assume that capitalism would be the ‘man’ or father in Wordsworth theory. To me personally, man here includes the idea of wisdom, life experiences, trials and errors, among others. Meanwhile, ‘child’ here includes the idea of innocence, honesty, blunt, simple pleasure, among others. Quentin and his friends embrace the idea to focus on self and pleasures; to seek happiness not through comfort, but through creativity—utilizing one of the biggest human characteristic, which is the opposite of the ‘capitalistic father’. Through his lifestyle, Quentin was criticizing the ideas behind capitalism not by protesting, writing scholastic paper, but simply by not living it.

His stories, I'm sure, can invoke different feelings to people. When I told one of my good friends about the idea of homelessness as a mean to 'enjoy' freedom from capitalism, she seems to be disgusted by it. She didn't reject this notion, but it just didn't make sense to her. And I think it is normal. But I would say that generally it will invoke mixed feelings to people. One might be a very slight feeling of embarrassment. “One August they put up a set of fairy lights and threw what became an infamous margarita party.” Just the idea of homeless people had a margarita party with lights give a tingling sensation in me. They can be happy, although they didn't drink the best margarita or use the best venue to party--they literally party with trash. Perhaps some regular middle class people can feel envy about this because we need above the standard parties to make us feel good about ourselves. This particular reaction is all a product of consumerism and capitalism. Another feeling that this story is trying to convey might be hope. Hope that there is happiness outside capitalism, consumerism, and living an ideal middle class life which has became most people's dreams. This story, especially because it comes from an educated upper class young man who went down the class ladder to become homeless, gives us the chance to see life in different perspective. An idea that is almost the exact opposite of American Dream and yet is actually livable.