G. D.

GOENKA PUBLIC SCHOOL, SILIGURI

CLASS: XII SUBJECT: ENGLISH (LITERATURE)

THE THIRD LEVEL: JACK FINNEY

Q1. What does the third level refer to according to Charley’s psychiatrist?

Ans.: According to Sam, Charley’s psychiatrist, the third level is a medium of escape through
which modern individuals yearn to be away from life’s harsh realities. Modem life is devoid of
peace and tranquility. So, Man, in his quest to seek solace escapes to a place where his
aim is to seek the realization of his dreams and unfulfilled wishes of his subconscious
mind. Sam refers to it as ‘waking dream wish fulfillment’. This is a term in the psycho-
analytical branch of psychology which refers to the satisfaction of an unfulfilled desire
through dreams, daydreams or thought processes. Charley, according to his friends,
imagined going down to the third level as he was dissatisfied with his life and sought refuge in
his escapist world.

Q2. What convinced Charley that he had reached the third level at Grand Central
Station and not the second level?

Ans.: The general layout of the third level was different from that of the second level which
made Charley realize that he had time travelled to the past century. The level had
comparatively smaller rooms, fewer ticket windows and lesser train gates. The information
booth in the centre was made of wood and looked old. The place with its brass spittoons did
not look very bright. So, Charley was convinced it was not the second level. The people
were also dressed differently, sporting hair styles, beards and clothes of a different era.
There were open flame gas lights and the newspaper that was being sold had long gone out of
print.

Q3. Do you think that the third level was a medium of escape for
Charley? Why?

Ans.: If we consider what Charley’s psychiatrist friend had told him, the third level was a
medium of escape for Charley. Life in the modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war,
worries, and stress. Man has to confront them all the time. The harsh realities of life make
living quite unpleasant and even unbearable. So he wants to escape into a wishful world.
Charley talks to his psychiatrist friend about the third level at the Grand Central Station. His
friend calls it “a walking-dream wish fulfillment”. Charley possesses an escapist tendency.
Even his stamp collecting is a ‘temporary refuge from reality’.

OR
 Charley finds among his grandfather’s stamp collection a letter sent to him by Sam. The date
of the unopened letter is July, 18, 1894 and from it, it is abundantly clear that Sam has
found his way into the Third Level and actually taken a train into the past.

Judging from the kind of stories that Jack Finney is known to write we can say that the story is
a way of proving that alternate realities exists and gaps can be found in the flow of time
through which a person can enter these realities. The story The Adventure by Jayant Narlikar
has a similar theme. If we accept the theory of time-travel through alternate realities we can
say that Charley actually found the Third Level, and Sam travelling to nineteenth century
Galesburg further proved it. Nowhere in the story is there any indication that Charley
wants to escape from reality. In fact right in the beginning it is said that he was keen to get
back home to his wife. It is true that he wanted to go back to a less complicated time in the
past, that is why he looked for the Third Level again, but we know that Charley was not going
through a dream wish fulfilment. Sam’s letter proves that.

HOME-WORK QUESTIONS

Short Answer Questions:

1. How does Charley describe himself as a person?

2. Why was Charley not able to get a ticket to Galesburg? How did he try to change that?

Long Answer Questions:

3. Do you see an interaction of time and space in the story?

INSTRUCTIONS:
Copy questions and answers from Q1 to 3 in your notebook. Home-work questions must be done
in the notebook and pictures/pdf of the same uploaded to ASSIGNMENTS on MS TEAMS by
19.08.2020 (Wednesday).

Alternately, the notes will also be available in the school ERP which may be accessed using
personal login id.