total eclipse

Let me start off by saying that I am seriously struggling to figure out how this website works. If anyone has some helpful hints, anything would help at this point.

Anyways, when I first started reading this essay, I was completely thrown for a loop. The first question I had about this essay came with the second paragraph. I had no idea where Annie Dillard was going with the several paragraphs worth of descriptions of the one painting of a clown made out of vegetables. I thought it sounded super creepy as she started to explain it, but when I continued to read more about how this painting impacted her life, it made me think that this painting is somewhat of an eclipse on her life. Just like the eclipse she witnesses later, the painting is a small, minor event in her life, and yet creates such a huge impact on the rest of her life.
 
On page 481, I made a connection to the clown painting when Dillard was explaining how the earth looked as the sun slowly slipped behind the moon. She explains that everything is "wrong."

            "The sun was going, and the world was wrong. The grasses were wrong; they were platinum. Their every detail of stem, head, and blade shone lightless and artificially distinct as an art photographer's platinum print. This color has never been seen on earth. The hues were metallic; their finish was matte."

This made me think of the clown painting again where everything is, again "wrong." One of the reasons she was so taken back by the clown painting was because of the fact that it was made out of vegetables. A clown is obviously not made out of vegetables, but it makes the mind take a second look at it because it is not what it normally sees. With the eclipse, it is the exact same logic. All the colors of the world are "wrong," but it makes the mind look at it in a new or different light.
 
At some parts, I must admit I got a little lost. I didn't understand why Dillard kept making all these dead people references. What do dead people have to do with an eclipse of the sun? I also didn't understand why she had to go on for the better part of four pages explaining how the sun looked behind the moon, and she could have summed it all up with "it looks like a life saver." That was a little annoying, but overall it was a very thought provoking essay.