Dillard uses an image of a clown to state ideas that will become notable later in the essay. In her hotel room outside Yakima, Dillard sees a twisted painting of a clown made of vegetables, in which she describes. Dillard states, “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). This scene anticipates the effect the eclipse will have. The clown is made up of vegetables; it is not what it sounds to be. The reader knows the painting is made up of various vegetables, but the mind only processes the clown; the whole.
