Third Level

Jack Finney
1. What does the third level refer to? What is the significance of the third level?

• The third level is the world somewhere between desire or dream and reality.
• It is a world of fantasy that we create for ourselves and occasionally seek to escape
to.
• Most of the time it is a picture of the simple past of our forefathers, who, we believe
were happier.
• It is an escapist’s world which one weaves around to be off the current-day problems,
worries, anxieties and tensions.
• Charley was a person who was fascinated by past/ he dreamt of visiting places which
were described by his grandfather.
• He wished to visit them.
1. What convinced Charley that he had reached the third level at Grand Central Station and
not the second level?

• The general layout of the third level was different from that of the second level.
• It 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.
• People wore clothes of older fashion.
How did Charley make sure that he was not in the present time? (2002 Delhi)

• Charley did a reality check.

• He looked at the newspapers
• ‘The World’, which carried the main story on President Cleveland.
• the newspaper he had seen was dated 11th June, 1894.
1How did Charley often get lost on the Grand Central Station?

• The Grand Central Station was growing like a tree pushing out endless
corridors, doorways and stairs like roots.
• It had intricate and tangled pathways.
• The network of passages was so complicated
• So, Charley often got lost on this station.
1. How does Charley describe Galesburg as it used to be in 1894?

• Charley describes Galesburg as a quiet, simple and peaceful place with big
old frame houses, huge lawns and tremendous trees.
• The summer evenings were rather long and people sat out on their lawns
in a peaceful world, men smoking cigars and women waving palm-leaf
fans.
Why did Charley suspect that Sam had gone to Galesburg?

• When Sam disappeared all of a sudden

• Charley suspected he had gone to Galesburg as Sam was a city boy
and liked Galesburg very much.
• Then Charley found an envelope mailed to Sam by his grandfather
from his home in Galesburg and so it confirmed that Sam was
indeed in Galesburg.
What did Charley learn about Sam from coin store?

• From the stamp and coin store Charley gets to know that Sam had bought old style
currency worth eight hundred dollars.
1. How did Sam reach Galesburg? What did he advise Charley to do?

• Sam was fascinated by Charley’s description of Galesburg.

• he thought of escaping to the peaceful world of Galesburg.
• His advice to Charley is that, he (Charley) and his wife, Louisa should come over to
Galesburg through the medium of the ‘third level’.
8. Why did the booking clerk refuse to accept the money? (2010 Delhi)

•
The booking clerk refuses to accept the money because the notes Charley had given him
were not of that time.
• He thought Charley was trying to cheat him and even threatened to get him arrested.
What is being inferred from Sam’s letter to Charley? (2003 Delhi)

Sam supports Charley’s claim of having visited the third level,

It also suggests that those who find the third level can travel across to Galesburg and enjoy
the festivities, songs, music and peaceful world of the 1890s.
It suggests that Sam was happy there and wanted Charley to join him
Why does Charley say that Sam couldn’t have practised his profession in 1894?

• Sam was a psychiatrist and in 1894, people were generally happy

• As they did not have any psychological issues they won’t need a psychiatrist
Why does author choose the time of Charley’s grandfather's time to express a time of peace
and happiness?

• This is the time before any World War

• Things were peaceful and devoid of threats and insecurities
13. Why did his friends believe that Charley was fascinated by past?
What argument was provided by Charley to contradict it/
Do you see an intersection of time and space in the story?

•  The third level is the point where the past and the present meet.
• One evening, on his way back from work, Charlie finds himself in the third level of the
Grand Central Station in New York. He discovers that things were different and realizes
that he is back in 1894.
• His friend reaches a place which belongs to 1894
• The time and the place represented in the story belongs to two different sections.
• They come together as the characters travel from on to the other.
What was Sam’s answer to Charley’s dilemma? Did Charley agree to his views?

• - 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 person who loved to live in past.
• -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.
•
What is a first day cover?

• 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. They’re never opened;
they just put blank paper in the envelope. The envelope is called a first-day cover.
Do you think Charley was really a worried man as his psychiatrist friend and the other friends
believed?

Charley was not an unhappy person

He led a perfectly normal life with his wife
He only liked the life in the past better as it was more peaceful that time
This was the time when world wars had not taken place
Things were peaceful and devoid of threat.
Do you think that the third level was a medium of escape for Charley? Why?

 
• Life today is full of insecurity, fear and worries and time travel is man’s way of escaping
from it.
• Occasionally, man seeks escape into the world of fantasy and his nostalgic memories, the
happier • times of the past.
• Yes, the third level was Charley’s medium of escape from the mad rat race of modern times.
Q.2. Do you see an intersection of time and space in the story?

• Yes, the story clearly shows an intersection of time and space.

• Firstly, the first two levels of Grand Central Station were in the present time while the third
level existed in the 1890s.
• Secondly Charley and his wife, Louisa, live in the present time yet Charley goes to get old
currency to buy tickets to go to the Galesburg of 1894.
• The World of 1894 also overlap with Charley’s real time world and existence.
• Finally, the letter that was mailed to Charley’s Grandfather on 18 July, 1894 highlights the
intersection of time and space.
How did Louisa react when the narrator told his wish to go to the third level to buy tickets?

•
When the narrator told Louisa about his wish she got pretty worried.
• She got alarmed at Charley’s claim of having been to the third level. His exchanging the
currency was a cause of concern.
• She thought the third level to be a product of Charley’s imagination and asked him to stop
looking for it.
• However, after some time they both started looking for the third level.
Discuss the irony at the end of the chapter.

Charley had found the third level and desired to go back to the Galesburg of 1894.
It is ironical that at the end, not Charley but his psychiatrist friend who had scorned
his discovery, uses the third level to reach Galesburg of 1894 and tells Charley to keep
looking for it.
The modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry, tension and stress. What are the ways in which
we attempt to overcome them?

• There is no doubt that the modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry, tension, stress,
anxiety and what not.
• people devise, find and invest different ways to escape from them.
• Some fight their worries/ some consult saints or seers or psychiatrists/ Some daydream or
listen to music
• People like the narrator invent an imaginary world around them and get lost in it for the time
being
Did Sam really go to Galesburg or was it Charley’s figment of imagination?

Yes- He received a letter from him/sam had vanished/ he had withdrawn money and
exchanged him/ Charley believed that sam too was fascinated by past / he was a city boy /
wanted peace of small towns
No – There was no third level/ charley himself could not find it/ the letter may have been his
own creation/ charley wanted his wife also to believe that third was a third level.
I told him about the third level at Grand Central Station, and he said it was a waking dream
wish fulfillment. He said I was unhappy. That made my wife kind of mad, but he explained that
he meant the modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and all the rest of it, and that I
just want to escape.  
• Who is narrator?
• Whom did he tell about the third level?
• What is waking dream wish fulfilment?
 
Everything points to it, they claimed. My stamp collecting, for example; that’s a ‘temporary
refuge from reality.’ Well, maybe, but my grandfather didn’t need any refuge from reality;
things were pretty nice and peaceful in his days
To what does everything point?
Which temporary refuge is being referred to?
How were things different from the days of his grandfather?
Sometimes I think Grand Central is growing like a tree, pushing out new corridors and
staircases like roots. 

• Why does the narrator say so?

• What happened one day in Grand Central Station?
• Have you ever been there? It’s a wonderful town still, with big old frame houses, huge lawns,
and tremendous trees whose branches meet overhead and roof the streets. And in 1894,
summer evenings were twice as long, and 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.
• Which place are we talking about?
• Why did the narrator want to go there?
• Was he able to find this place?
• I went back to my stamps. But now we’re both looking, every weekend, because now we have proof
that the third level is still there. My friend Sam Weiner disappeared! Nobody knew where, but I sort
of suspected because Sam’s a city boy,
I’ve been here two weeks, and right now, down the street at the Daly’s, someone is playing a piano,
and they’re all out on the front porch singing ‘Seeing Nelly Home.’ And I’m invited over for lemonade.
Come on back, Charley and Louisa. Keep looking till you find the third level! It’s worth it, believe me!
But now we are both looking….’ What does this refer to? Explain.

• The above mentioned words were said by Charley as he and his wife
Louisa, both every weekend started to search the third level because
they had the proof. Charleys friend Sam was disappeared. So, they
both Charley Louisa were looking for the third level.
What was Sam invited for according to the letter?

• (a) for a party

(b) for a tea party
(c) for a bachelor’s party
(d) for a lemonade party
What convinced Charly that he had reached the Third Level Grand
Central Station and not the second level?

• (a) A different world of gas lights and brass spittoons

• (b) beards and mustaches of 1894
• (c) newspaper with a date June 11, 1894
• (d) All of these
• What specific difference did Charley notice at the Third Level of
Central Station?
(a) Everything was weird
(b) Everything was old styled and smaller in size
(c) everything was too big
(d) everything was shining
• Why does Charley want to visit Galesberg?
(a) to escape from the troublesome world
(b) to enjoy
(c) to see the beautiful landscape
(d) to meet his old friends
• How did Charlie reach the Third Level?
(a) In his fantasy he takes a subway or a corridor
(b) in a superfast train
(c) in jetways
(d) in an escalator
• Why was the narrator seeing this Third Level?
(a) as a wish to visit Galesberg
(b) wanted to meet his friends
(c) wanted to take a break from office
(d) As a result of stress and anxiety in his mind
• Does the Third Level really exist at Grand Station?
(a) Yes
(b) yes, there were 3 levels
(c) No, there were only two levels at the station
(d) None
• What is Sam’s letter to Charles represent?
(a) A blend
(b) an acceptance to visit
(c) a proof of his fantasy
(d) a blend of reality with fantasy
• What is ‘Waking dream wish fulfillment” according to the
psychiatrist in the lesson?
(a) Charles finding of a Third level at Grand Central Station and
realization of his wish to visit Galesberg Illinois
(b) Charles escapism
(c) Charles escapism from realities
(d) None
• What is the meaning of ‘Waking dream wish fulfillment”?
(a) a pleasant wish that makes one forget the present
(b) a pleasant wish that takes one to the future
(c) A pleasant wish which inspires to work
(d) a pleasant wish that makes one forget the present
• What did the letter state?
(a) That everything is okay
(b) that Sam is joining them
(c) Third level do exist and Charle was advised to keep looking
at this worth seeing place
(d) None
• What happens when Charley enters the Grand Central Station?
(a) He finds a huge tree like Station
(b) new staircases, corridors and tunnels
(c) tree keeps spreading its roots throwing rooms and windows
(d) All of these
• Did Louisa believe Charley initially? What changed her stand?
• What is the significance of the letter from Sam?
• What is the irony in the chapter?
• Apparent illogicality sometimes turns out to be a futuristic projection?
Discuss.