Total Eclipse

In the very beginning of the essay, Annie Dillard mentions how tiny, insignificant occurrences manage to grasp her attention easily. She offers an example of this by mentioning the odd clown, made out of vegetables. Out of all the ideas she wished to retain in her mind, after two years, this clown was one of the few. The author mocks this trend by communicating that humans are barely able to remember what’s of great importance; in fact, they aren’t really interested in what’s of great importance. The total eclipse was an event that greatly affected Dillard’s life. It was the first time she viewed the world from a distinct perspective. As she says, “the sun was going, and the world was wrong”. All that was around her seemed strange; nature’s bright colors were dim, the people around her were unknown, and even time lapse didn’t seem to be in the present. This peculiarity in all the darkness terrified her! Dillard’s fright is transmitted when describing the “awful” and “wrong” scenery as a complete “devastation”. By being in the presence of this darkness, she was practically exposed to death. This exposure completely marked her; it was significant. Though she was horrified, it’s as if the author required of this in order to make sense of the meaningful things in life.
However, there aren’t many people that know how to prioritize the significant things. While she was witnessing this life-changing event, others were off to work in their cars. The author wonders if businesses simply aren’t capable of giving “their employees an hour off” to observe this worthy even. Through this essay, Dillard wishes to highlight this disregard to prove its incorrectness. Humans should pay more attention to the important things, rather the irrelevant.