From “The Art of the Essayist”, Benson describes what he thinks the true purpose of an essay is–for it not to be informative or factual but for it to be something personal, something people can relate to in their everyday lives that can be provocative. To acknowledge differences in people, why those differences might exist, and to simply get the reader to relate and ponder. He says the author of an essay must, “care more about the inconsistency of humanity than about its dignity; and he must study more what people actually think about rather than what they ought to think about” (41).
In “Total Eclipse” by Annie Dillard, she uses her essay to do just that. The essay has the interesting choice of starting with the description of a clown painting, despite the essay being about a total eclipse. She writes, “It was a painting of the sort which you do not intend to look at, and which, alas, you never forget… I have forgotten, I assume, a great many things I wanted to remember–but I have not forgotten that clown painting or its lunatic setting in the old hotel” (97). Instead of making some kind of thesis or main point to start out the essay, the author instead hones in on a single moment in her memory. She provokes the thought of memory, and why one would remember a clown paining better than most things despite its meaning being absolutely insignificant to you. As Benson said this is “what people actually think about rather than what they ought to think about” (41).
Dillard ends her essay with, “From the depths of mystery, and even from the heights of splendor, we bounce back and hurry for the latitudes of home” (109). After an entire essay conveying a short story of the total eclipse and the horrific impact it had in that one moment, the essay doesn’t end with anything profound or deep, the character in the story hasn’t changed at all in the end. Despite the impact of the moment, she goes home as if it never happened, forgotten, the way any reader can relate to. As a reader, it provokes thought in the impact of such moments, and why we simply let them go, and why instead we remember clown paintings.