Annie Dillard uses many literary techniques in order to describe the entire environment of where she is during the eclipse. She uses a lot of comparisons and juxtapositions in an attempt to show us what she is experiencing herself. For example when Dillard writes " It looked as though we had all gathered on hilltops to pray for the world on its last day, It looked as though we had all crawled out of spaceships and were preparing to assault the valley below. It looked as though we were scattered on hilltops at dawn to sacrifice virgins, make rain, stelae in a ring." Here Dillard compare the simple act of standing on the hills to watch an eclipse to things you would see out of a science fiction movie. This line is important because it is dark and eerie.

     You can tell by how Annie Dillard is writing that this experience is new and different to her and that there is a slight apprehension toward the idea of being there. This is also seen in the line where       Dillard writes " There was no sound. The eyes dried, the arteries drained, the lungs hushed. There was no world. We were the world's dead people rotating and orbiting around and around, embedded in the planet's crust, while the earth rolled down". In this line Dillard describes the settings as drained of life and energy. Only moments before the eclipse she is weary about being there to watch it happen.

     Dillard sets up a whole ambiance in which the reader feels as strange and uncomfortable as she feels. This works well for what she is writing about because not many people have witnessed an eclipse first hand therefore not many will know what to be expecting when reading about one. Annie Dillard does a great job in creating an experience, this is also shown in the line "I turned back to the sun. It was going. 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 photographers platinum print." These lines paint an image. In the moment after the sun is engulfed in darkness the world does not go black, but instead goes silver and platinum. She goes on to talk about how the sky was a dark blue and her hand were also silver. The way she writes in these lines remind me of the twilight zone and give a new vibe to the idea of what an eclipse is. She paints a different picture than most would and I enjoy reading this essay.
    Anne Dillard is a picasso of  creative nonfiction in this essay. From the beginning of the story she illustrates her surroundings from the hotel and the painting of the clown on the wall to the people standing on the hill waiting for the eclipse up until the actual eclipse.