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From Solar Eclipse to Total Eclipse of the Mind and Back
By Tom Mitchell
In Annie Dillard's “Total Eclipse” essay she uses different literary techniques of self
acknowledgment, repetition and word choices to depict the process of losing her mind, which
causes the readers to feel disoriented. This takes place during a trip to Yakima, WA to watch a
solar eclipse with her husband. They arrive the night before and stayed overnight at a Yakima
hotel before embarking to the foothills to view the eclipse. During the eclipse Dillard loses her
mind when the moon's shadow hits her and everyone else on the hill. A short time later she
regains identity with her mind at a nearby restaurant while having some eggs before heading
home to the coast.
Dillard tries to convey that the mind, while it is complex in its functioning, is also frail
and a person can lose our state of mental consciousness at any time. She does this in one
sentence by writing “Further: while the mind reels in deep space, while the mind grieves, fears,
or exults, the workday senses, ignorance or idiocy, like so many computer terminals printing out
market prices while the world blows up, still transcribe their little data and transmit them to the
warehouse in the skull” (34). Dillard is trying to convey that the mind is a complex yet frail
entity. Any human brain is capable of losing the identity with who they are, whether in a
conscious or subconscious state of mind. Losing one’s mind mean losing one’s identity with life.
This can happen under any circumstances and a wide range of emotions. Even in deterioration,
the mind can still function by remitting data that controls a persons bodily functions and senses.
Breaking down Dillard’s quote she duplicates the phrase “while the mind”under two different
contexts. In referring it with “deep space” she is talking about losing one’s mind. The second

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time using the phrase “while the mind” she relates to the other exterior circumstances that
happen to us on a daily basis. A person can lose their mind and are still capable of processing
emotions at the same time and not know the difference between good or evil, reality or delusion.
The last part of the quote is referencing to the “computer data” being transmitted regardless of
what is going on the mind. Even in the minds simple state of function, the mind processes over a
million bits of data per second regardless if a person is awake or sleeping. This includes one’s
current emotional or mental state of mind.
Dillard acknowledges this was happening to her several times during the eclipse. She first
references the loss of sanity by exclaiming, “'Look at Mount Adams,' I said, and that was the last
sane moment I remember” (29). She said this after seeing the reddish hue, otherwise known as
“Alpenglow” on Mount Adams. Immediately after this she speaks of how the world was wrong
as the colors changed to metallic colors and she spirals through time grasping the bits and pieces
of history. The metallic or darker colors and shadows remind her of how photos from the 19th
Century looked like or of the faded colors of movies set in the Middle Ages. Immediately after
these darker images she stated “My mind is going out; my eyes were receding the way galaxies
recede to the rim of space” (30). This was an intense moment. As her conscious mind starts
deteriorating, she knew it was happening and had little power over it. She also uses the word
galaxies and space which are infinite objects with no charted ends. The mind itself is deep with
complexities which science cannot chart. Therefore the mind can be depicted as having infinite
similarities to space. Her purpose was to use celestial terminology as a cross reference to losing
her mind. She ties in astronomy and the loss of her mental faculties in a fashion to make the
reader feel disoriented yet some understand they have one in the same meaning.

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Dillard uses repetition of word choices to give the readers a disoriented feeling on a
literal level. By using the repetition of words (sometimes in the same paragraph or several
paragraphs later) and sudden subject change, she conveys to the readers the process of losing her
mind. She combines the astronomical terms with her frequent use of “deep” in several different
passages to depict the vastness each is noted for. Dillard uses “deep” is to describe a place,
emotion or in the mind. In one paragraph it references “deep space” as in the quote mentioned
earlier in this essay. Dillard refers to deep in another paragraph of her essay as a warning about
our psyche, “In the deeps are the violence and terror of which psychology has warned us” (32).
Dillard identifies the mind is capable of violent and terrible thoughts and uses an academic term
to acknowledge it has been researched. Psychology is the “science of the mind or of mental
states and processes” ( Yourdictionary.com. 2010). This definition shows the mind has processes
regarding its mental state. The mind can go into deep recesses for which there is no scientific
name or location. Places so deep she refers to them as the entrance to deep space and ether. Ether
is a known gas but also has a second meaning as the regions of space beyond atmosphere of the
earth. All three of these words can be described as deep places of which there is yet much to
explore and the same holds true for the mind. Dillard does not let the readers know until later in
her essay that it is a result of the shadow from an eclipse that engulfs everyone on the hill side
where she stood which adds to the feeling of disorientation. She turns her short time of loss of
mind and reality into an eternity.
One of the parts Dillard talks about in losing the mind is unreliable memory. She uses her
memory or memory loss in several different paragraphs in her essay to give a feeling of
disorientation. It becomes useless and she has problems recalling faces. She notes this in her
earlier ramblings of her essay as she had problems recalling her husband: “'When I was at home'

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said __________, 'I was in a better place' ” (26). At this point she was in the hotel room and the
alarm was set for six. The only other person in the room was her husband. This quote was not a
reference to her because it lacks a pronoun before the word “said.” On the other hand she does
recall things from her memory; however, it is not a total recall. Dillard establishes both recalling
old memory and loss of memory. The early process for her was recalling the metallic shades of
old photos or movies and the river. The river, of course, she did identify later on by saying that
she was “dumbstruck on the Euphrates River” (33). Dillard’s intent of using an unreliable
memory of obscure or not so obscure things in her writing aids her objective to make her
audience feel disoriented or confused or to say she is crazy.
The solar eclipse was a dramatic event and left her in a state of shock or a black out.
Dillard acknowledges: “I did not know how we got to the restaurant” (33). In order for her to get
to the restaurant she had to climb down the hill she and her husband were on and drive to it. For
a period of time she did not know where she was yet her body still functioned while her
consciousness was gone. Noting back to the quote above in this essay on “Deep Space,” it
mentions transcribing and transmitting data. Her body was still functioning and did not require
medical assistance. The brain was not conscious of her identity yet it was cognizant of her body
and what it must do to keep functioning. While the mind does not recall, the body still does even
the most basic functions like breathing and walking.
In a different context recalling certain words can also bring one back to a normal state of
consciousness. While it took less than two minutes for Dillard to lose her mind from the
powerful eclipse, it took only seconds to regain her mind when a college student’s words
brought her back to reality, “Did you see that little white ring? It looked like a Life-saver. It
looked like a Life-saver up in the sky”(33). While the college student perhaps thought the eclipse

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looked like a Lifesaver candy. Dillard writes it as “Life-saver,” which has a totally different
meaning as someone or something that saves lives. The college student was her life-saver, like a
life guard saving a drowning victim from the depths of the ocean or a circular lifebuoy thrown to
a person fallen overboard on a ship. His words brought her from the depths of her mind and back
into reality.
Dillard made some great literary decisions in her writing to give the audience a
feeling of disorientation to convey that she had lost her mind. Close examination shows some of
the processes of losing her mind with the use of self acknowledgments, repetition word choices
and unreliable memory. Dillard acknowledges that she is aware of losing her mind by direct
references to her “last sane moment” just before being hit by the moons shadow and again when
her “mind was going out” after the darker analogies. To further enhance disorientation she uses
the word choice of “deep” or astronomical terms to depict the magnitude of the process of losing
her mind. The final part of losing her mind is an unreliable memory. While she was able to recall
some obscure memories such as the metallic colors of old photos or movies set, she could not
recall her husband’s face from the eve before the eclipse. In a quick turn of events and a simple
words like “Life-saver” she regains identity with herself. In the end Dillard warns her readers
that the mind is infinitely deep and unexplored as space or the ocean and a person can be lost in
the vastness.

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Works Sited
Dillard, Anne. “Total Eclipse.” First Year Composition Reader. New York: Pearson Custom
Publishing, 2009. 25-36. Print.
“
Psychology.” Yourdictionary.com. Lovetoknow Corp. 2009. Web. 25 March 2010