The Third Level - Jack Finney

1. Prelude - Is it possible for us to visit our past?

Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, typically using hypothetical device, the time
machine. It is a widely used concept in philosophy and science fiction.

Making one body advance or delay more than a few milliseconds compared to another body is not feasible with our
current technology. Outside the usual perception of time, there are solutions within the framework of general and
special relativity that provide for forward and backward time travel to take place. Even if such travel were feasible, it
would give rise to several questions, involving casualties and the paradoxes associated with it, like the famous
Grandfather paradox.

Philosophers differ on the concept of future and past. Some believe in eternalism, the idea that the past and future
exist in a real sense, not only as changes that occurred or will occur to the present. Time could be viewed as a
dimension equal to spatial dimensions, there is no objective flow of time. Presentism is another view that holds that
the future and the past have no real existence of their own, but exist only as changes that occurred or will occur to
the present. In this view, time travel is impossible because there is no future or past to travel to.

2. About the Author:

Jack Finney was an American novelist and a short-story writer. His best-known works are science fiction and
thrillers. He attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He worked for an advertising agency in New York City
and then, he moved with his family to California in the early 1950s. Finney's story "The Widow's Walk", won a
contest sponsored by Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1946. His first novel, Five Against the House, was
published in 1954 and made into a movie the following year. His most well-known works include The Body
Snatchers and Time and Again.

3. Background / Context:
The Third Level by Jack Finney deals with themes of escapism and the desire for peace. The life of modern man
is full of insecurity, stress and worries and he is unable to cope with these challenges. So, he wants to run away
from the harsh realities of life and escape into a fanciful world, full of peace, happiness, and tranquillity, “The
Third Level”. The protagonist deludes himself into believing he has found a secret way to travel into the past
and wants to go back to 1894 to live a life of safety and serenity. He spends his time stuck in the hallucinations
of his own mind and creates an atmosphere of false reality that he cannot escape.
The story of the third level explores the science fiction genre of ‘time travel’. Jack Finney, interweaves fantasy
with the reality in his cleverly written plot and leaves the readers with a sense of uncertainty as they wonder
about the actual truth behind Sam’s letter.

4. Character Sketch:
a. Charley – Protagonist:
The protagonist of the story, Charley is a true representative of modern man. He is a victim of stress, insecurity
and fear and seeks refuge from reality. He is an escapist and yearns to escape from the world of harsh realities.
He fondly practices philately, a hobby, which he takes up to make his leisure hours a more productive and
fulfilling experience. But this, according to Sam, his psychiatrist friend is a temporary refuge from reality. He
yearns to lead a good simple life of his grandfather’s time, when things were pretty nice and peaceful. He wants
to revisit the fabulous ordinariness of a bygone age that was free from modern hustle and bustle, sophistication
and material comforts but exudes peace and tranquillity. He wants to go to Galesburg, Illinois, in the year 1894
when the First World War was twenty years off and the Second World War still forty years ahead.
b. Louisa – Charley’ wife:
Louisa is Charley’s wife. She is loving and caring towards her husband. She refuses to accept the psychiatrist’s
evaluation that her husband is unhappy. She takes this comment as a personal attack and feels ‘kind of mad’.
She feels satisfied with the psychiatrist’s explanation about the modern world being full of insecurity. When
Charley talks to her about his predicament regarding the third level, she gets alarmed and advises him not to
look for the third level anymore. Her husband’s exchanging the new currency with the old one concerns her and
she tells Charley emphatically to stop looking for it. Sam’s disappearance and subsequent letter to Charley
makes her joins him in looking for the third level every weekend.
c. Sam – A psychiatrist and Charley’s friend:
Sam is a psychiatrist by profession. He is a typical city boy. When Charley fantasized about the Third Level at
Grand Central Station, he visited Sam for consultation. Sam declared it a ‘temporary refuge’ from the harsh
reality. He called it a waking-dream-wish-fulfilment. He tells Charley that he is not happy in the current world
and is, hence, looking for ways to escape. He dubs Charley’s hobby of stamp collection as a temporary refuge
from reality. He does not believe in mixing up his profession with his friendship. He gets fascinated by Charley’s
description of Galesburg, Illinois -- a wonderful town with big old frame houses, huge lawns, tremendous trees
lining the streets. We get to see that Sam is also affected by the pulls and pressures of modern life that he thinks
of escaping to the peaceful world of Galesburg of 1894. In the end, he discovers the third level of Grand Central
and goes there. He writes a letter from there advising Charley and Louisa to keep finding the third level because
“It’s worth it.”

5. Summary of the Story:

The story begins with Charley, the protagonist, being convinced that he had found the third level of the Grand
Central Station. Aware of its ridiculousness, he visits a psychiatrist. His psychiatrist, Sam calls this a “waking
dream wish fulfilment”. His friends agreed with Sam’s diagnosis, pointing to the fact that the Charley’s hobby of
stamp collection was also a ‘temporary refuge from reality’. Charley believed otherwise; he used the example of
his grandfather and President Roosevelt, who used to enjoy stamp collecting too, to justify his belief.
One summer night, Charley was in a hurry to get to home and his wife. In a hurry, he decided to take the
subway instead of the bus since it was faster. He was quite used to the labyrinth the Grand Central Station was,
and had bumped into new doorways and tunnels regularly. That night, he came across a particularly strange
slanting tunnel and decided to follow it. This led to the third level of Grand Central Station. This level, a
fragment of author’s imagination was set in the past, a visible representation of the year 1894. There were
fewer ticket windows, an old looking wooden information booth, dim and flickering open flame gaslights and
brazen spittoons. The people were dressed in old-fashioned clothes, had beards and fancy moustaches, women
dressed in old French style. He noticed a small Currier and Ives locomotive too.
His assumptions were confirmed by the newspaper The World which showed the date to be June 11, 1894. He
decided to buy train tickets that would take him far away from worry, stress, and insecurity, to a quiet little
place, Galesburg, Illinois. However, he could not buy the tickets, as he didn’t have the old-style currency. When
the clerk suspected him for tendering fake currency, he left hastily. The next day, he withdrew almost all his
savings, converted them to old style notes, and began searching for the third level again. However, he couldn’t
find that passageway ever again as much as he tried and soon gave up.
Now, however, he and his wife look for that tunnel every day. His friend Sam had found the passage to the third
level and had apparently moved to Galesburg. This was revealed when Charley found an old letter in his stamp
collection which hadn’t been there before. Sam had addressed a letter to Charley’s grandfather, and the letter
had remained among the First Day covers. In the letter, Sam advised Charley to keep looking for the third level
until he finds it again.
6. Brainstorming:
i. Ticket Window ii. Brass Spittoons iii. Old Watch iv. Derby Hat
The modern world, undoubtedly makes us frustrated, helpless, and overworked. Our subconscious mind hence
finds ways and means to escape stress and tensions. Depending on our upbringing, mindset and interests,
people find novel ways to overcome such a sorry state of affairs. Most people find refuge in hobbies. The
narrator, Charley, indulges in stamp collection to break the monotonicity of his life and use tie productively.
Many turn to yoga, spirituality, books, exercise, music, and creative fields like painting and writing to overcome
stress and find time for themselves. These interests help reduce time for stress anxiety and hopelessness
associated with life. Positive energy exudes from the body making one calm, relieved and tranquil.
The story is a masterpiece by Jack Finney, a writer of science fiction who describes the “Third Level” as a
mysterious world that is somewhere between our unfulfilled desires, expectations, and dreams.

The narrator, Charley, portrays a Utopian world through Galesburg, Illinois in the year 1894 – the ideal world
to live in. Big old frame houses, huge lawns, and tremendous trees whose branches meet overhead and roof the
streets. Long summer evenings – when people sat out on their lawns, the men smoking cigars and talking
quietly, the women waving palm-leaf fans, with the fire-flies all around, in a peaceful world. Such portrayal
unconsciously made Sam find the third level in his ‘alternate reality’. This shows how deep the desire for escape
is. He created a circumstance wherein the disbelieving became the one to lead the way.
The existence of the Third Level is a matter of debate. Jack Finney's story contains both elements that try to
convince us of the reliability of the narrator—and thereby of the reality of the third level—and elements that
allow us to question the same. Charley’s apparent willingness to accept a psychological explanation for seeing
the third level convinces us that he is not a lunatic. The enumeration of many facts by the narrator can be
verified. The 20th Century Limited, was a real express passenger train and the tunnel between Grand Central
and The Roosevelt Hotel really existed. In addition, Sam Weiner, narrator's psychiatrist, provides evidence that
going back to 1894 is possible. This vindicates the narrator completely.
On the other hand, the story also contains many hints that the third level may be what the psychiatrist calls "a
waking-dream wish fulfilment". Walking along a mile-long tunnel should provide enough time to realise that
you're not walking in the right direction. He admits that Grand Central may be a way of escape for some people.
On the third level he sees a "Currier & Ives locomotive" even though Currier and Ives was a printmaking firm,
not a locomotive manufacturer. Charley is mistaking a lithographic poster for reality. Also, had Sam’s letter to
Charlie been real, it would have contained much more detailed instructions about finding the Third Level and
not just “Keep looking till you find the third level!”. Finally, the reader knows that time travel only exists in
fiction.
The various contrasting elements present a vague picture to the reader, one with infinite possibilities. They are
left with sense of uncertainty as they wonder about the actual truth behind ‘The Third Level’.