THE THIRD

LEVEL

BY
JACK FINNEY
 About The Author

Walter Braden/ ‘Jack Finney’ (1911-1995) was an American

author. He graduated in 1934 from Knox College , Illinois. He was
best known for his science fiction and thrillers. In 1987, he was
given the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
 ELEMENTS OF THE STORY

• SETTING
• CHARACTERS
• MOOD
• TONE
• CONFLICT
 SETTING
The Third Level is written by sci-fi and thriller author Jack
Finney. The story is a proper example of time travel stories.
Set in a realistic world where transportation and commutation
occur in two levels at the Grand Central Station New York, a
normal man named Charley believes in the existence of the
Third Level, where time-travelling to the 1890s is possible.
 It is a story about a 31-year-old man name, Charlie. Besides,
this is a psychological story that refers to the subway at the
grand central railway station which takes passengers to
Galesburg. In addition, this subway becomes the
interconnection between the narrator's harsh reality and
fantasy.

• 
 CHARACTERS
Charley: The protagonist of the story, Charley is a true representative of modern
man. He is a victim of stress, insecurity and fear and wants to run away from
reality. He is an escapist and wants to escape from the world of harsh realities.
He is fond of stamp collection, a hobby, which he takes up to make his leisure
hours more productive and fulfilling experience.

Louisa: Louisa is Charley’s wife. She is loving and caring towards her husband.
However, she is a simple lady and it is not difficult to take her in. She refuses to
accept the psychiatrist’s observation that her husband is unhappy. She takes this
comment as a personal attack and feels ‘kind of mad’. On being told the modern
world is full of insecurity, fear, etc. she feels satisfied with the psychiatrist
explanation.

Sam, Charley’s Psychiatrist friend: Sam is a psychiatrist by profession. He is a

typical city boy. When Charley shares his visiting the third level he tells him it is
a waking dream wish fulfillment. He tells him that he is looking for ways to
escape since he is not happy. But he immediately revises his statement that
Charley is a victim of insecurities of modern life. 
 MOOD

The Third Level’ is a study of human mind

caught in this cycle of time. When people in
the present time want to escape the
problems and stress of life, they feel that life,
fifty or sixty years ago, was relaxed and they
wanted to go back to that time for peace and
happiness.
 TONE
It was never built at the Grand Central
Station, New York; it is set in a mock-
serious tone, as the author Jack Finney,
effortlessly blends between the present and
the past. We infer from the ending that the
wishful imagination of Charley, the
protagonist, was vivid, and he wanted to
escape from the present world.
 CONFLICT
‘Charley is convinced that there are three, not just two, levels of
Grand Central Station. Charley’s psychiatrist and friends think
his delusion is a ‘waking-dream-wish fulfillment’ and a
temporary refuge from a world full of insecurity, fear, war and
worry’.
Charley describes how one evening while hurrying home from
office he decides to take the subway from Grand Central
Station, and gets lost. He eventually finds himself on a strange
third level with spittoons, gaslights, an ancient locomotive and
people whose appearance and clothes look strange. He realizes
that he has somehow gone back in time to 1894, which is
confirmed by the newspaper’s lead story on President
Cleveland.
 VALUE POINTS
 Grand Central Station of New York has two levels. But Charley, a
thirty-one year old dweller of the city, talks about there being three.

 Not only does he believe in the existence of this hypothetical third

level but also claims to have been there
.
 Charley visits a psychiatrist friend to talk about this problem. The
psychiatrist calls it a “waking-dream wish fulfillment”

 He rationalizes Charley's psychology by saying that the “modern

world is full of insecurity, fear, worry, and war...”

 Everybody wants to escape to some “temporary refuge from

reality.” According to him, even hobbies like stamp collection is a
manifestation of this escape.
 VALUE POINTS
 When a new stamp is issued, on the first day, people mail a
blank paper to themselves and then retain that unopened
letter with the date on the postmark.
 Charley has inherited the hobby and the collection from his
grandfather.
 The fast growing Grand Central station at times seems to be a
maze to Charley.
 He had lost his way a couple of times earlier too while taking
the subway.
 Once, he entered the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel while the
other time he emerged at an office building that was three
blocks away.
 But this time when he loses his way, something unique
happens. He visits the third level!
 VALUE POINTS

 In the silent hallway, Charley keeps walking, turning left, and

sloping downward, until he touches an architecturally old
station, which is totally different from the two familiar levels.

 Moreover, this old small room with fewer ticket counters

and train gates, a wooden information booth, wavering open
flame gas lights and brass spittoons.

 All this remind him of the architecture of the 1800s. Further,

he sees people in outdated outfits.
 VALUE POINTS
 The brass spittoons reminds him of the architecture of the
1800s.
 He also finds that people are dressed in outmoded outfits. He
notices that the date on the newspaper The World is printed
June 11, 1894.
 As he tenders money to the clerk at the counter to buy two
tickets, he realizes that he need to have old currency bills to do
so.
 He had always wanted to travel to Galesburg with his wife,
Louisa.
 In his mind, it is “a wonderful town still, with big old frame
houses, huge lawns, and tremendous trees....” It is a place
with long and pleasant summer evenings and where people
have ample of time.
 VALUE POINTS
 So, the next day during lunch, he exchanges three hundred dollars
for old style bills amounting to some two hundred only.
 The loss doesn’t bother him much as he believes that in Galesburg
everything will be cheaper and that he can manage even with a small
amount. But, he could never again find the corridor leading to the
third level.
 His wife Louisa is worried after knowing all this and asks him not to
look for the third level any further.
 Suddenly Charley realizes that his friend, Sam Weiner, is nowhere to
be found, so he and his wife keep looking for him in the weekends.
 Sam was the one with whom Charley used to share his ideas about
Galesburg.
 One day while fidgeting with his stamp collection, Charley comes
across a letter that was not there earlier
 VALUE POINTS
 It bears the postmark on a faded six-cent stamp with a picture of the
President Garfield.
 The envelope was sent on July18, 1894 to Charley's grandfather in
Galesburg and is addressed to Charley.
 The letter reads that Sam has reached Galesburg and is having whale
of a time there.
 He also invites Charley and Louisa to Galesburg.

 When Charley goes to the stamp and coin store, he is apprised of

Sam's exchanging eight hundred dollars for the old currency bills to
establish his business of hay feed and grain in Galesburg.
 The letter was written by Sam Weiner, who was Charley's
psychiatrist!
 Through the third level, the writer wants to escape from the modern world
to peaceful and quite old times.
 SUMMARY
 It is a story about a 31-year-old man name, Charlie. Besides, this
is a psychological story that refers to the subway at the grand
central railway station which takes passengers to Galesburg.
 In addition, this subway becomes the interconnection between
the narrator’s harsh reality and fantasy. Moreover, the third
level was a way of escape for Charley.
 As life in the modern world is full of uncertainties worries and
stress, it takes Charley to a different world that his friend also
calls, “a walking dream wish fulfilment.”
 Further, the story is about Charley’s tendency to escape from
the world. Most importantly, the third level starts because of
Sam’s letter written on 18th July 1984.
 This story shows the connection between time and space.
•  
 VALUE POINTS/ SUMMARY OF THE ENTIRE CHAPTER
Charlie : 31 year old, office goer, claims visiting the third levels
 
• Description of the Third level

– Small room, few ticket windows and train gates, wooden and old
looking information booth.
– Men had beards, side burns, fancy moustaches
– Women wore skirts, high buttoned shoes and leg of muttons sleeves.
– A man looking at a pocket watch
– Old style locomotive with funnel shaped stack
– Open gaslights being used
– Brass spittoons on floor
– Wants to visit his home town, Galesburg
– Past is quiet and peaceful
– Tries to buy two tickets to Galesburg (one ticket for his wife Louisa)
– Clerk grows suspicious as Charlie doesn’t have old style currency.
– Back to present day world
CONTD…………..

 • People’s reaction to Charlie’s experience

– Presidents of NY railroads swear on the existence of two

levels.
– Psychiatrist friend Sam refuses to believe
– Interprets it as an escape from insecurity fear, war and
worry of the modern world.
– Louisa too disbelieves Charlie

• Charlie’s determination to find the Third Level

– Withdraws money, buys old currency worth 300 dollars.

– Fails to find the Third Level
– Louisa and Psychiatrist worried.
 
CONTD…..

• Unexpected Ending

– Sam disappears
– Charlie finds a first day cover, never seen before
– Note from Sam dated 18th July 1894 from Galesburg
– Sam asks Charlie and Louisa to come to Galesburg and enjoy
quiet and peaceful life.
– Charlie discovers Sam had bought old currency worth 800
dollars.
– Enough to help him start hay and grain business in 1894 at
Galesburg
 
 THEME
The story 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 Third Level’ is a story that weaves together a psychological journey
of the narrator into past, present and moves towards future. There is
always a natural human tendency to constantly move between the past,
the present and the future. Past, present and future are strategically
and organically interconnected.
Man is mortal and has many good and bad aspects of life like love,
profit, loss, good, bad, etc. All these aspects tend to affect the human
mind. Then existential worries act like a catalyst for making the human
mind constantly move between the past, the present and the future.
•  
The letter explained
As a science fiction we may say a real time travel has occurred,
but, interestingly it has occurred with Sam, who was a realist.
As a psychological thriller story we might say, Charley has
delusions and imagines Sam to be in Illinois, a place of his
dreams.
Charley purposely puts Sam in the situation which Sam did not
believe can exist to satisfy his ego.
Sam may have purposely written such a letter to pacify Charley.
The Third Level Question Answers
Read and Find out

1. What does the third level refer to?

A. The third level refers to an additional floor at the Grand Central Station which actually has
two levels. Charley was hallucinated it one night while going home when he had chosen to
take a train from the Grand Central.

2. Would Charley ever go back to the ticket-counter on the third level to buy tickets to
Galesburg for himself and his wife?
A. Charley went looking back for the third level that could take him and his wife to Galesburg
because he wanted to go back to an ideal time in the past in a particular place in the USA.
He wanted to go back to the world that has not seen two of its deadliest wars that changed
everything for the worse.

Read with insight

1. Do you think that the third level was a medium of escape for Charley? Why?
A. The third level of the Grand Central Station was a medium of escape for Charley. The
modern world offers a lot of challenges and in order to take refuge from reality, one might
resort to day-dreaming or hallucination. We all understand the miseries of the modern world
which is full of worry and pressure, thus, in order to take the burden away from his shoulders
and heave a sigh of relief, Charley resorted to escaping reality, although unintentionally.
2. What do you infer from Sam’s letter to Charley?
A. The way Charley discovered Sam’s letter was rather peculiar. It was one of those first-day
covers people used to mail to themselves back in time with a blank page inside. So to begin
with, the cover had a letter in it and not a blank page in it. Secondly, the letter dates back to
18 July, 1894 when Sam (the writer of the letter) didn’t exist because both Sam and Charley
exist in the twentieth century.
As a science fiction we may say a real time travel has occurred, but, interestingly it has occurred
with Sam, who was a realist.
As a psychological thriller story we might say, Charley has delusions and imagines Sam to be in
Illinois, a place of his dreams.
Charley purposely puts Sam in the situation which Sam did not believe can exist to satisfy his ego.
Sam may have purposely written such a letter to pacify Charley.

3. The modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and stress. What are the ways in
which we attempt to overcome them?
A. One cannot count on fingers the negative aspects the modern lifestyle has to offer. There is
stress, pressure, fear, insecurity and worry. In order to relieve oneself of all these miseries, one
can indulge in creative activities from time to time. Making time for oneself and what one loves
without worrying about a productive outcome is a crucial thing many people tend to ignore in the
hustle and bustle of daily lives. Secondly, one can read a good book or even meditate. Long walks
in the lap of nature are not to be underestimated because nature has its own healing power. Apart
from these, a short weekend getaway, movie night with friends or even alone at home can be done
in order to dissociate oneself from the routine.
4. Do you see an intersection of time and space in the story?
A. There are a lot of instances that tell us about the intersection of time and space
in the story. First intersection being the one between the first two levels of the
Grand Central Station and its third level which is based somewhere in the 1890s
whereas the former exists in the present times; also when Charley went to buy
tickets for Galesburg which existed in 1894 while he had currency of the present
time. Not to ignore the old fashioned architecture of the third level in contradiction
to the modern interiors of the first two levels. Lastly, the letter dated 18th July,
1894 that Charley found also throws light upon the intersection of time and space
as both the sender (Sam) and the receiver (Charley) exist in the present times.

5. Apparent illogicality sometimes turns out to be a futuristic projection?

Discuss.
A. While a lot of the world’s greatest inventions were made by people who were
criticized for their ideas. Audiences used to mock at them for being illogical.
Sighting the example of Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb, no one
believed in him at first but all he had was an idea and it’s realistic projection in
mind. The idea here tells us how important it is to sometimes follow one’s insight
and have hope for it holds the capacity to change the world through its futuristic
projections.
6. Philately helps keep the past alive. Discuss other ways in which
this is done. What do you think of the human tendency to
constantly move between the past, the present and the future?

A. Philately does indeed help in keeping the treasures of past alive. It

gives one a chance to revisit and embrace the past of one's existence.
Some of the other ways in which it can be done is by keeping a record
of all the letters, ancient manuscripts, things that are discontinued but
were a significant part of the past, images, videos and written records
of experiences.
Human beings are a collection of all the experiences they have been
through. Their tendency to connect with the past from time to time
helps them stay connected to the roots while helping them to face the
present and future challenges with more strength. Connecting with the
future on the other hand, is just as important to know the outcome of
one's current actions and decisions. If one doesn't seem satisfied with
the realistic interpretation of future, it can certainly help in altering
current actions to direct towards a better future.
THANK YOU