The Third Level

The Third Level

                                  By Jack Finney

Analysis :

·      The story ‘The Third Level is written by Jack Finney, an American writer who is best known for his science fiction and thrillers.

·      The story is about modern-day problems and how the common man tends to escape the reality and slips into imaginary world.

·      This is the story about a man named Charley who hallucinates and reaches the third level of the Grand Central Station which only has two levels.

·      It is a fiction which narrates a set of events happening in the life of the protagonist, Charley and explains his childhood fascination for past time and past things such as stamp collection.

·      The story narrates small incidents, historical events and characters and does the comparative study of the events and characters in the past and present life of Charley.

·      The 1890s depict a tranquil lifestyle that is not feasible in the present. The main character wants to take his wife, Louisa to Galesburg, Illinois, and thus he escapes into his more attractive past and happens to go to the third level of the Grand Central station.

·      The story conveys the message that we may pass into an imaginary world which is more attractive yet we have to face the bitter reality of life.

Summary :

This is the story of a man named Charley who was thirty-one years old. The narrator had a doubt whether he had been on the third level of the Grand Central Station or not. So he talked to his psychiatrist friend and told him about the third level but he said it was a waking dream or his old wish fulfilment in imagination. He explained that the modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and all the negativity, and which he wanted to escape. The narrator was doubtful and thought that everybody wants to escape, but no one wanders down into any third level. All his friends also felt that his stamp collecting is a ‘temporary refuge from reality. He told that his grandfather who started the collection didn’t need any refuge from reality as things were pretty nice and peaceful in his days. It was a nice collection with blocks of four of practically every U.S. issue, first-day covers, and many other important stamps. He told that President Roosevelt also collected stamps.

He narrated what happened at Grand Central to his psychiatrist friend, Sam. Last summer when he was working late at the office, he was in a hurry to get home to his wife, Louisa so he decided to take the subway from Grand Central because it’s faster than the bus. He passed a dozen men who looked just like him. Being in hurry he turned into Grand Central from Vanderbilt Avenue, and went down to the first level, from where trains like the Twentieth Century could be taken. Then, he walked down to the second level, from where the suburban trains leave. He had been in and out of Grand tunnel hundred times. He got into a tunnel about a mile long and came out in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel. Another time he came up in an office building on Forty-sixth Street. He felt, Grand Central is growing like a tree with new branches and new roots.

He felt, there’s probably a long tunnel under the city on its way to Times Square, and maybe another to Central Park. Grand Central has been an exit for many years that’s how he got into the tunnel. The corridor was turning left and downward. He could hear his own footsteps, not a soul passed, there. Then, the tunnel turned sharp left. Taking a flight of stairs he came out on the third level at Grand Central Station. There were fewer ticket windows and train gates, smaller rooms and the information booth was of wood and old looking. The man in the booth wore a green eyeshade and long black sleeve protectors. The lights were dim and flickering. There were brass spittoons on the floor, and glint of light across the station. A man was pulling a gold watch from his vest pocket, glanced at his watch and frowned. He wore a derby hat, a black suit and had big, black, handlebar mustache. Everyone in the station was dressed like eighteen-ninety century time with beards, sideburns and fancy mustaches.

Then, he saw a very small Currier & Ives locomotive with a funnel-shaped stack. A newsboy had the stack of  the news paper ‘The World’ which hasn’t been published for years. The lead story on front page was about President Cleveland printed on 11 June 1894. It could be found in the Public Library files. He turned toward the ticket windows on the third level to buy tickets that would take him and Louisa anywhere in the United States in the year 1894. He wanted two tickets to Galesburg, Illinois, a wonderful town with big old frame houses, huge lawns and big trees with the branches meeting overhead. He was overwhelmed with everything associated with the time - summer, people, their habits and working culture and a peaceful world. He wanted to be back there in the past and wanted two tickets for that.

He had enough money for two coach tickets but when he was counting the money, the clerk said, ‘that ain’t the money’. The money was old-style bills and different-looking. He left the place and came back. Next day, during lunch hour, he drew three hundred dollars out of the bank and bought old-style currency. The three hundred dollars bought less than two hundred in old-style bills, but he didn’t care. But, when he went to buy the tickets, he never again found the corridor that leads to the third level at Grand Central Station, although he tried often enough. Louisa was pretty worried to know all this, and didn’t want him to look for the third level any more. He stopped and went back to his stamps. But then, they both started looking for it every weekend, because now they had proof that the third level is still there. His friend, Sam Weiner disappeared. Sam’s a city boy, and he liked the sound of the place and that’s why he was in Galesburg. In 1894 he found what a first-day cover is. When a new stamp is issued, stamp collectors buy some and use them to mail envelopes to themselves on the very first day of sale; and the postmark proves the date. Such envelope is called a first-day cover. They’re never opened, and had only a blank paper.

That night, among his oldest first-day covers, he found one more envelope which was mailed to his grandfather at his home in Galesburg on July 18, 1894. The stamp had a picture of President Garfield. There was a note to Charley signed by Sam who had gone missing recently. Sam wrote that he always wanted to believe in the idea of third level and now he is there himself. He also encouraged Charley and Louisa to go to him through the third level. He found out that Sam bought eight hundred dollars’ worth of old-style currency. from a coin and stamp store. That money was sufficient to set him up a nice little business. 

Important Question Answers

Q. What does ‘Third level refer to?

Ans. There is a subway in New York called The Grand Central Station which basically has two levels from where passengers go to their respective destinations by train. When Charley was in hurry to catch his train running from first and second level of the station, he found an unknown way which led him to the another part of the station which was the third level. It made him think about the period of 1980s which was very peaceful that is not there in that present era but in reality there was no third level ever built, it was all his imagination.

Q. Do you think, the third level is an escape from reality? Why? Why not?

Ans. Yes, the third level is an escape from reality for Charley because the present era is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and he was unhappy in the present conditions. So, when he imagined the third level, he found it peaceful and pleasant and he felt happy in that period of time so definitely it proved that the third level wasa medium of escape for Charley.