INDIAN SCHOOL MUSCAT

SENIOR SECTION
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
CLASS XII

THE THIRD LEVEL

-Jack Finney
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Charley, a thirty-one year old having worked late one night enters Grand Central Station from
Vanderbilt Avenue, with the aim of boarding a train home. As the station is large consisting of
various corridors and two levels catering for different trains, he loses his way. He finds himself in
what he thinks is the third level of the station. He realizes that something is different there as the
people are dressed differently and the area is lit not with the electric lights of the modern times but
with open gas fires. He suddenly makes the discovery that he has somehow entered the year 1894.
He sees the date on the newspaper ‘The World’ that has not been published for many years. The
paper that he glances at bears the date June 11, 1894. He is filled with excitement and he decides to
buy two tickets for Galesburg, the peaceful town that he has grown up in.
Charley discovers that he does not have the appropriate currency of that period and is therefore
unable to buy the tickets. His wife and his psychiatrist friend, Sam as well as his other friends are
quite alarmed when they hear his account and forbid him to seek the third level again. They treat the
incident as a figment of his imagination and attribute it to his desire to escape from the stresses of his
life.
However, Charley’s friend, Sam disappears and Charley finds a letter from him in an old First Day
Cover dated July 18, 1894. In the letter, Sam tells Charley that he has settled down in Galesburg and
urges Charley not to give up his search for the Third Level as it is well worth the effort. Sam is now
engaged in a nice little hay, feed and grain business, something that he has always wished that he
could do.
The author leaves the readers wondering what The Third level really is. Though Charley is able to
find proof of his experience, is it really possible to make this transition back and forth in time?
Jack Finney a writer of Science fiction treats his favourite subject, Time in a new dimension. The
shadowy, eerie world that lies somewhere between dreams, desires and reality are what he calls The
Third Level. It is the point where the past, the present and the future meet and here nothing is, as it
seems.
Explanation
The Third Level at Grand Central Station
Grand Central Station of New York has two levels. But Charley, a thirty-one year old dweller of the
city, talks about there being three. Not only does he believe in the existence of this hypothetical third
level but also claims to have been there.
A visit to his psychiatrist friend
Charley visits a psychiatrist friend to talk about this problem. The psychiatrist calls it a ‘waking-
dream wish fulfillment’ and rationalises Charley's psychology by saying that the ‘modern world is
full of insecurity, fear, worry, and war...’ and everybody wants to escape to some ‘temporary refuge
from reality.’ According to him, even hobbies like stamp collection is a manifestation of this escape.
Charley loses his way at Grand Central
The fast growing Grand Central Station at times seems to be a maze to Charley. He had lost his way
a couple of times earlier too while taking the subway. Once, he entered the lobby of the Roosevelt
Hotel while the other time he emerged at an office building that was three blocks away. But this time
when he loses his way, something unique happens. He visits the third level!
The Third Level
Charley keeps walking in the quiet corridor, angling left and slanting downward, till he reaches an
architecturally old station that is completely different from the two familiar levels. The antiquated
small room with fewer ticket counters and train gates, a wooden information booth, flickering open
flame gas lights and brass spittoons reminds him of the architecture of the 1800s. He also finds that
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 people are dressed in outmoded outfits. He notices that the date on the newspaper ‘The World’ is
printed June 11, 1894. As he tenders money to the clerk at the counter to buy two tickets, he realises
that he need to have old currency bills to do so.
Charley's plan for a journey not realised
He had always wanted to travel to Galesburg with his wife, Louisa. In his mind, it is ‘a wonderful
town still, with big old frame houses, huge lawns, and tremendous trees....’ It is a place with long and
pleasant summer evenings and where people have ample of time. So, the next day during lunch, he
exchanges three hundred dollars for old style bills amounting to some two hundred only. The loss
doesn’t bother him much as he believes that in Galesburg everything will be cheaper and that he can
manage even with a small amount. But, he could never again find the corridor leading to the third
level.
Sam goes missing!
His wife Louisa is worried after knowing all this and asks him not to look for the third level any
further. Suddenly Charley realises that his friend, Sam Weiner, is nowhere to be found, so he and his
wife keep looking for him in the weekends. Sam was the one with whom Charley used to share his
ideas about Galesburg.
Philately & the first day covers
Philately is not just stamp collection but a broad term including the study of stamps, postal history
and other related items. When a new stamp is issued, on the first day, people mail a blank paper to
themselves and then retain that unopened letter with the date on the postmark. Charley has inherited
the hobby and the collection from his grandfather.
A letter from Sam
One day while fidgeting with his stamp collection, Charley comes across a letter that was not there
earlier. It bears the postmark on a faded six-cent stamp with a picture of the President Garfield. The
envelope was sent on July18, 1894 to Charley's grandfather in Galesburg and is addressed to
Charley. The letter reads that Sam has reached Galesburg and is having whale of a time there. He
also invites Charley and Louisa to Galesburg. When Charley goes to the stamp and coin store, he is
apprised of Sam's exchanging eight hundred dollars for the old currency bills to establish his
business of hay feed and grain in Galesburg. The letter was written by Sam Weiner, who was
Charley's psychiatrist!
Theme
The story third level clearly explores the science fiction genre of ‘time travel’; Jack Finney, the
recipient of the world fantasy award interweaves fantasy with the reality in the most futuristic
projection of time travel. Charley wishes to be transported to the third level, the world of 1894 which
is supposedly much happier and quieter place to be. It is one of the most concise and entertaining
story about time travel. The question whether the third level exist in real or only in charley’s mind
can be inferred from Sam’s letter.
The story also dwells on the theme of escapism, not only as a psychological refuge from the grim
realities of the present day world but also as a desire to stay with the past or to keep the past alive in
the complexities of the present. In the story Charley not only expresses desire to escape but also
prepares and tries very hard, a desire which is not contested by the wife either. Sam is also happily
escaped with no plans to resort to his old profession along with scores of other people who cross the
grand central everyday… to escape seems to be an all pervasive feeling.
1. How did Charley reach the third level of the Grand Central Station?
Grand Central Station, New York, has only two levels. One evening Charley reached this station and
then walked down the second level to catch an early train to his home. While he was on the second
level, he strangely happened to notice a doorway down. He followed the steps and reached the third
level which was never heard or seen by anyone. In the third level Charley saw a hundred year old
world and people.
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2. What was Charley’s strange experience at the Grand Central Station?
The Grand Central Railway Station, New York, has only two levels. It is a common fact. A simple,
normal man, Charley, once took an unknown way down to the third level of this station. He got lost
in a 100 year old world there. People, fashion, currency and dressing were different there. Even
though it was difficult for Charley to believe what was happening, he had no other choice than
believing the reality. He thought of living there, a world behind his time, because the 1894 world was
more peaceful, innocent and secure. He tried to get two rail tickets to his hometown Galesburg; one
for his wife, indeed. But Charley failed to get the tickets as the clerk at the ticket counter suspected
him and his currency notes. Charley ran away, got out of the third level and finally reached the
present world and got home.
3. How did Charley ascertain that he had reached the 1894 world?
Charley reached the third level of the Grand Central Railway Station, New York. Amidst his fresh
amazement, Charley could not relate the possibility of being in a hundred year old world. But when
Charley observed the dim gas lamps, brass spittoons, old styled costumes of men and women,
moustaches and beards generally worn by men, string-watches and so on, Charley began to doubt
that he had become part of the old world yet he still didn’t know which year it was. Charley got it
resolved only at the sight of The World, the newspaper that bore the date of 1894 with a piece of
news of President Cleveland.
4. Why did Charley run away from the third level?
Charley was greatly amazed when he reached the hundred year old third level and was planning to
buy two rail tickets to Galesburg where he had spent his childhood. But when he took out his money
to pay the fare, the clerk found out that his notes were fake and thought that Charley was attempting
to fool him. Seeing that there was nothing good about police and jail in the hundred year old
Galesburg, Charley ran away.
5. What was Sam’s answer to Charley’s dilemma?
Charley met his psychiatrist friend Sam and told him about this experience. The psychiatrist
interpreted it as a mental disorder. Indicating his hobby of stamp collection and this sort of
experiences, Sam explained his abnormality to be ‘escaping from the struggles of life by fantasizing.’
Soon his friends and wife began to consider Charley as a mental patient. But how! Charley was not
abnormal. He was a happy man who loved his wife and friends and stamps. But the rest of the world
believed Charley was abnormal, a dreamer.
6. How did Sam’s mail reach Charley?
Sam had no easy way to send Charley a message that the third level was no waking dream wish
fulfillment but a reality. He had to depend only on postal system but there was no link between his
old world and Charley’s present world. Finally the smart psychiatrist found a way out. He was aware
of the fact that Charley’s grandfather could be alive in the 1894 Galesburg, young and of course,
having a stamp collection and that this same collection was with Charley. So Sam send a first day
cover to Charley’s ‘grandpa’ and the young man kept it in his collection and consequently it reached
Charley.
7. What is role of the stamp-collection in the story?
The stamp collection is the logic behind the story. It was Charley’s favorite pastime. In fact this
collection was passed on to Charley from his diseased grandfather. The most important fact about
this collection is that this was the only thing that connected the old world and the new: the same
thing but existing in two worlds. This collection turned out to be useful for Sam the psychiatrist
friend when he attempted to convey to Charley the truth regarding the existence of the third level. It
was by keeping his first day cover in Charley’s grandfather’s collection that Sam could make the
same available to Charley.

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8. Does Charley agree that stamp collecting habit is a way of escapism? Why?
No, Charley doesn’t agree with this claim of his psychiatrist friend. Charley’s grandfather was a
stamp collector yet he was a happy man and he never ran away from any reality. Another stamp
collector was President Roosevelt, the American President who won the World War II. From these
two people Charley believed that stamp collecting habit does not mean escapism.
9. What does the Third level refer to?
The Third level refers to that level where one transcends the boundaries of time and space and
reaches far flung destinations like Galesburg, Illinois, 1894. Few people like the narrator and his
friend Sam dare to explore it ‘Third Level’ could also symbolize man’s yearning to get transported to
the world of imagination as an escape from the world of harsh realities.
10. How does the psychiatrist turn out to be a firm supporter of Charley and his third level?
The story ‘The Third Level’ is a blend of satire and irony. Initially, when Charley told his
psychiatrist friend Sam about his strange experience at the Grand Central Station, the latter dismissed
it as a dream. But the same psychiatrist was a seeker of the unknown and therefore sought the truth
and smartly reached the mysterious third level and believed it. Sam, a man who knew the unknown
and unexplained minds of several people, could only prove the existence of the third level.

Long Answer Questions:

1. What do you infer from Sam’s letter to Charlie?

Ans. Sam’s letter from Galesburg in 1894 to Charley in the twentieth century leaves the readers
mystified and perplexed. Charley finds this letter among the first day covers of his grandfather’s
collection. Someone had mailed it to his grandfather at his home in Galesburg. The address on the
envelope said so. But the paper inside the envelope was not blank; rather Charley found a letter
written to him by Sam in which he informs that he has reached the third level.
Several inferences could be drawn from Sam’s letter. Firstly, it is possible that Sam, getting
influenced by Charley’s glowing description of idyllic Galesburg, got transported to the peaceful past
through the medium of imagination. His inability to cope up with rigours of harsh reality led him to
take recourse in the tranquil world of Galesburg. So, through the letter, Sam suggests Charley and
Louisa to keep looking for the third level till they find it.
Secondly, the question could be raised about the authenticity of the letter. Is the letter written by Sam
or is it written by Charley himself? If charley could speak about his journey in the third level
which is unknown to others, so his possibility of writing the letter in the name of Sam could not be
ruled out. The introductory part of the letter seems to be a projection of Charley’s waking dream
wish fulfilment. It confirms his belief in the existence of the third level.
Thus, the letter appears to be a strange mixture of the real and the fantastic and the author has made a
very clever use of it so that it boggles the reader’s mind.

2. Imagination is a ‘temporary refuge from reality’. Explain with reference to ‘The Third Level’.
Value points:

 Believed it was a waking dream, perhaps wish fulfilment.

 Felt that like many man in the modern world Charley too was unhappy.
 Modern world is full of trials and tribulations, worries and insecurities.
 Felt Charley wanted to escape this world.
 People indulge in some sort of hobby to escape the stark harsh realities of life.
 Even stamp collecting was a kind of temporary escape.
 Charley refuted his contention- said people do not wander about due to stress.
 Besides his grandfather had also collected stamps in the good old peaceful days of eighteen-nineties
and did not need to escape as life was quite stress-free in those days.

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