To Build a Fire

What hallucination does the man give?

hallucination

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From the text:

"He seemed to himself to skim along above the surface, and to have no connection with the earth. Somewhere he had once seen a winged Mercury, and he wondered if Mercury felt as he felt when skimming over the earth."

This is not technically a hallucination. These are the man's thoughts as he runs on feet that no longer have any feeling. This is how he describes the act of running rather than a hallucination.

Source(s)

To Build A Fire

At the end of the story, the man describes his feelings as the temperatures begin to take over his body and take away his life force. His final thoughts....

"He pictured the boys finding his body next day. Suddenly he found himself with them, coming along the trail and looking for himself. And, still with them, he came around a turn in the trail and found himself lying in the snow. He did not belong with himself any more, for even then he was out of himself, standing with the boys and looking at himself in the snow. It certainly was cold, was his thought. When he got back to the States he could tell the folks what real cold was He drifted on from this to a vision of the old-timer on Sulphur Creek. He could see him quite clearly, warm and comfortable, and smoking a pipe."

Source(s)

To Build a Fire

"He seemed to himself to skim along above the surface, and to have no connection with the earth. Somewhere he had once seen a winged Mercury, and he wondered if Mercury felt as he felt when skimming over the earth."

This is not technically a hallucination. These are the man's thoughts as he runs on feet that no longer have any feeling. This is how he describes the act of running rather than a hallucination. At the end of the story, the man describes his feelings as the temperatures begin to take over his body and take away his life force. His final thoughts....

"He pictured the boys finding his body next day. Suddenly he found himself with them, coming along the trail and looking for himself. And, still with them, he came around a turn in the trail and found himself lying in the snow. He did not belong with himself any more, for even then he was out of himself, standing with the boys and looking at himself in the snow. It certainly was cold, was his thought. When he got back to the States he could tell the folks what real cold was He drifted on from this to a vision of the old-timer on Sulphur Creek. He could see him quite clearly, warm and comfortable, and smoking a pipe."