THE THIRD LEVEL

1. THE THIRD LEVELby Jack Finney Currency Verma 12th H

3. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Walter Braden "Jack" Finney (born John Finney; October 2, 1911 – November 14, 1995) was an American author. His best-known works are science fiction and thrillers, including The Body Snatchers and Time and Again. The former was the basis for the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers and its remakes.

5. The Third Level by Jack Finney is about the harsh realities of war. War has irreversible consequences thus leaving people in a state of insecurity. It is also about modern day problems and how common man tends to escape reality by various means. In this story, a man named Charley hallucinates and reaches the third level of the Grand Central Station which only has two levels.

7. The Third Level Theme The story, ‘The Third Level’ clearly explores the science fiction genre of ‘time travel’. Jack Finney, the recipient of the World Fantasy Award, interweaves fantasy with reality in his projection of time travel. Charley, the protagonist wishes to be transported to the third level, the world of Galesburg, Illinois, 1894, which is supposed to be a much happier and quieter place to be in. The story also dwells on the theme of escapism as a psychological refuge from the grim realities of the present day world along with a desire to stay with the past—a desire that Charley’s wife Louisa does not contest. Sam has also happily escaped, with no desire to return to his old profession. The story exposes the vulnerable side of the common man. Surrounded by myriad problems, we humans, sometimes experience a craving for peace and serenity, and look for possible escapes. This story is about time intersection, an illusion, a kind of long dream that we do not experience during our sleep.

8. The story revolves around a 31 year old man named Charley, who experienced something weird. One day after work coming from the Subway, he reached the third level of the Grand Central station (which doesn't actually exist). He reminisces the entire experience with his psychiatrist friend Sam. Charley thought he experienced time travel and had reached somewhere in the eighteen-nineties, a time before the world saw two of its most deadliest wars. As soon as he realized what time he is in, he immediately decided to buy two tickets to Galesburg, Illinois; one for himself and the other for his wife. Unfortunately, the currency used in that century was different. Thus, the next day he withdrew all his savings and got them converted even if it meant bearing losses. He went looking for the third level but failed to find it. It worried his wife and the psychiatrist Sam who told him that he is hallucinating in order to take refuge from reality and miseries of the modern world which is full of worry. Charley thus resorts to his stamp collection in order to  distract himself when suddenly one day he finds a letter from his friend Sam who had gone missing recently. Sam wrote that he always wanted to believe in the idea of third level and now that he is there himself, he encourages Charley and Louisa to never stop looking for it.

10. Charley Charley is a thirty-one year old man in a tan gabardine suit and a straw hat. One night, on his way back from work, he decides to take the subway at the Grand Central Station, which as everyone knows, has two levels. Preoccupied and in a hurry, Charley discovers an unknown exit that takes him through a long corridor, into the third level. Here, there were fewer ticket windows, the man at the booth wore green eye-shades, the lights were open-flame gas lights, and women wore old-fashioned, fully covered dresses. The newspaper, ‘The World’, was dated June 11,1894. Charley knows that from there, the third level of the Grand Central, he could go to anywhere in the United States, 1984. He decides to buy two tickets to Galesburg, Illinois, for his wife Louisa and himself from the ticket window in the third level. Galesburg, with its big old houses, huge lawns and tremendous trees represents an idyllic world to Charley, with the World War II still forty years into the future. However, the clerk at the window refuses the currency Charley offers. Charley leaves, deciding to return the next day, after converting all his savings into old-style currency. But Charley has never again found the third level. When Charley tells his psychiatrist friend, Sam Weiner about this, Sam tells him that it was “a waking dream wish fulfillment” as Charley was “unhappy” in the modern world with its insecurities and fears, and just wanted to escape. Charley never again found the corridor that led to the third level at the Grand Central. Ironically, his friend Sam, the psychiatrist, disappeared, only to reach Galesburg, Illinois, in 1894.

11. Sam Sam Weiner is Charley’s friend, and psychiatrist, and the next most important character in the story. He concludes that the third level is a figment of Charley’s imagination, induced by the pressures of modern living. When Charley fails to find the third level of the Grand Central Station, his wife Louisa is worried for him and tells him to stop looking for it. But after sometime, both start looking for it because they find proof that the third level exists. Charley’s friend, Sam Weiner disappears. A first-day cover that Charley discovers in his collection, is signed by Sam and is from Galesburg, Illinois, dated July 18,1894. Charley subsequently discovers that Sam had bought eight- hundred dollars worth of old-style currency and moved to Galesburg, Illinois, in 1894. He had . set up a hay, feed and grain business as he had always said that it is what he really wished to do. Clearly, he could not go back to his old business—psychiatry—in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1894.

12. Louisa Charley’s wife Louisa was initially angry with Sam’s suggestion that Charley was unhappy, ‘ when Charley tells him about his sojourn to the third level of the Grand Central Station in New York. Then Sam explains that it is not marital unhappiness, but dissatisfaction and discontent with modern day living with its insecurity, fear, war and worry. To escape from these pressures, Charley’s mind had sought refuge in the idyllic world of the third level. Louisa’s conviction in the existence of the third level is affirmed only when she sees the note sent by Sam himself, from Galesburg, Illinois, dated July 18, 1894. Since then, Louisa has been actively involved in looking for the third level, along with her husband, Charley.

13. explanation • The Third Level”, written by Jack Finney blends fiction with reality. It is also about a man’s wish to escape from the harsh realities of present life. Charley, though he does not admit it, wants to go into the past as he is unhappy. He is unhappy with his wife. In fact, he is as unhappy as he finds the world in which he lives full of hurry, tension and war. His psychiatrist friend, Sam tells his stamp collecting also as an escape into the past. • There were only two levels at Grand Central Station. However, Charley found a third one. It was by chance. Many a times, he was lost there. He was always discovering new doorways, new corridors and new tunnels. He had begun to think that the Grand Central was always pushing out tunnels and new corridors like roots of a huge tree. • There he lost his way and found himself on the third level. This level was entirely different and old-fashioned. The locomotive, the brass spittoons and the naked gaslights belonged to the previous century. He desired to escape to Galesburg, the town of his dreams. However, he was nearly arrested. The money he gave to pay the fare was different from that in use those days. The booking clerk thought that he was cheating. Charley, thus, ran into the present. He never found the third level again. However, his psychiatrist friend, who did not believe that the third level existed, found it and escaped to Galesburg of 1894.

17. Question 1. Why did Charley meet a psychiatrist?Answer:Charley met a psychiatrist, since he was in a dilemma. He felt sure that he had been on the third level of the Grand Central Station, which everyone knows has only two levels. Even the Presidents of the railroads would swear on a stack of timetables that there were only two levels. Question 2. What was the psychiatrist’s diagnosis?Answer:The psychiatrist said that Charlie was unhappy. The modern world, full of insecurity, fear, war and worry oppressed him, and he just wanted to escape.

18. Question 3. What proof did the psychiatrist provide?Answer:Charley’s psychiatrist and his friends said that his stamp-collecting was an indication of his desire to seek “a temporary refuge from reality”, as was his collection of first-day covers. Question 4. What was Charley’s argument when the psychiatrist told him that the stamp collection was a temporary refuge from reality?Answer:Charley argued that his grandfather lived in nice and peaceful times, yet he was the one . who had started the stamp collection. He did not need any “temporary refuge from reality”. He added that President Roosevelt collected stamps too. Question 5. How does Charley describe Galesburg, Illinois, 1894?Answer:Charley describes it as a wonderful town with a leisurely way of life with big old frame houses, huge lawns, tremendous trees and a peaceful and tranquil world. During summer evenings, people sat in their lawns, with men smoking cigars and women waving palm-leaf fans. The first World War was twenty years away and the second World War was forty years into the future. Question 6.What is a first-day cover?Answer: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. The envelope is called a first-day cover. They are never opened. You just put a blank paper inside the envelope.

19. Question 7. What role does the first-day cover play in the story?Answer:One night, while fussing with his stamp collection, Charley comes across a first-day cover that should not have been there. It had been mailed to his grandfather at his home in Galesburg in July 18, 1894. However, instead of a blank paper, it contained a letter for Charley from Sam. It urged him to come back to the third level with Louisa, and keep looking for it till he found it. Question 8. What was the content of the note that Sam wrote to Charley?Answer:Sam said that he had found the third level, that he had already been there for two weeks, that life was peaceful, calm and tranquil. He urged Charley and Louisa to go back to the third level and keep looking for it till they found it. Question 9. How was Charley often lost on the Grand Central Station?Answer:CHARLEY had went to the Grand Central Station hundreds of times. However, at times, he was always lost in new doorways and corridors. Once, he entered a tunnel and came out in the lobby of a hotel. Another time, he reached in an office building. Question 10. How did Charley compare the Grand Central to a huge tree? Why?Answer:Charley always found new tunnels and staircase at the Grand Central. He began to suspect that Grand Central was like a huge tree. It used to push out new corridors and tunnels like the roots of a tree.