The art of an essay is something that should never follow some sorts of rules or any kind of particular structure. As expressed by Dillard throughout her ‘Total Eclipse’ short story, the so-called ‘art’ of an essayist may not always make sense to some readers. However, that is because many people will try to analyze what they read only to what they have experienced or firmly believe in. On top of that, the human mind also manipulates ideas and thoughts that may or may not come across one another.

From the “The Art of the Essayist” by Arthur Christopher Benson, he makes it clear how readers would not always take in, from reading a certain excerpt, the same meaning as was intended by the author. In other words, the author may have written something, however, the reader could have interpreted it differently according to their own points of view and beliefs. As Benson says, an essayist is “… an interpreter of life, a critic of life”(43 Benson). Therefore, an essayist writes what they write because that is the way in which they see something in particular. the human mind, however, has it’s own ways into making us think differently than reality at times, opening up people’s horizons about life.

Annie Dillard, in addition to what Benson explained to be the “art” of the essay, adds that, “The mind wants to live forever, or to learn a very good reason why not. The mind wants the world to return it’s love, or it’s awareness; the mind wants to know all the world, and all eternity, and God”(107 Dillard). In this quote the author implies that the human mind possesses the ability to manipulate what people may want to believe or not. That the human mind is powerful enough to think a certain way in order for the mind to think that the world has returned it’s love to the mind.