Total Eclipse

In Dillard’s essay, the solar eclipse is an agent of change that symbolizes transformation. The eclipse’s rarity and totality signify the vastness of the universe, inspiring epiphany and reflection about the meaning of life—and in turn triggering the introspective, existential contemplation that led to this essay. The eclipse also embodies The Transformative Power of Nature: It disrupts the routine progression of time and reality, transforming a sunny day into an “eerie” darkness and causing a sense of disorientation within the natural order. This abrupt shift forces both Dillard and her reader to confront the cyclical nature and unpredictability of life; it also illustrates how a single moment of clarity can forever change one’s perspective.

Although it elicits emotional, revelatory reactions from observers like Dillard, the eclipse itself is stoic and dispassionate, evoking the age-old tension between the universe’s indifference toward humanity and humanity’s need to imbue the universe with meaning. Further, its ephemeral nature echoes the fleeting moments of clarity, beauty, and comprehension in life. In essence, the eclipse challenges, reveals, and transforms, guiding Dillard on her journey of introspection and cosmic reflection.

Dillard’s emphasis on landscape, specifically the way it changes, contributes to the essay’s theme of journeying into unfamiliar territory. During the couple’s road trip to the hotel, Dillard highlights the transition from their coastal home to Yakima Valley, which is rural and uncharted territory to the travelers. The avalanche in the Cascade Mountains, which blocks the only pass, is both a common obstacle and a passage to the unknown, as evidenced in the essay’s ominous opening line. The travel from coast to countryside, and then back to the coast, also parallels the transition of the eclipse and the landscape movement. These changes of the landscape during the travel and the momentary changes caused by the eclipse, then, function as a motif in the essay.

The sensation is repeated in the way the eclipse creates unexpected and unfamiliar visual changes to an already unfamiliar landscape. Furthermore, the alterations of the landscape during the eclipse are accentuated, ranging from the unusual behavior of animals to the chilly decline in temperature, rendering the natural world unfamiliar and eerie. This altered landscape exemplifies the couple’s reaction to the uncharted locale and their realization that, despite being unfamiliar, it was familiar to them, in contrast to the unfamiliarity of the eclipse’s gloomy world they briefly witnessed.