The Jacket Chapter 12

In which the narrator, enduring the cruel torment of the jacket, finds respite by slipping into vivid reenactments of past lives, including that of a dusty and desperate emigrant boy named Jesse amid a grim westward wagon train braving hostility and hardship. Through these spectral journeys, reflections unfold on the nature of life and spirit as distinct from the fleeting forms of matter, weaving a somber meditation on endurance and identity amid the relentless passage of time.