The Third Level

The Third Level

By Jack Finney

About the author

Walter Braden "Jack" Finney 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.

About the Lesson

The Third level refers to an additional floor at the Grand Central Station which originally only had two levels. Charley was hallucinating one night while going home when he reached the third level.

Theme

• The story, ‘The Third Level’ clearly explores the science fiction genre of ‘time travel’.

• 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.

Introduction

• The past is a good place to visit, but certainly not a good place to stay. The Third Level by Jack Finney is an engrossing story set in the 1950s. The story is studded with numerous undertones of irony.

• It takes you back in time. It was a world when people hadn’t seen two of the bloodiest wars in the history of mankind.

• The story brings to light the fact that figments of someone’s imagination can be used for shying away from reality, which in all fairness, is harsh enough. Let us take a closer look at the story.

Overview of the lesson

• The Third Level tells the story of a 31-year old guy named Charlie (not Charlie Sheen).

• One fine evening, while rushing home, he decides to take the subway from the Grand Central Station in New York City. He ends up finding himself on the Third Level of the Grand Central Station (there were only two levels).

• There, Charlie observes spittoons lying on the floor. He observes that people wear wearing derby hats and gold watches, which they kept in their vest pockets. He also sees a Currier & Ives locomotive.

Cont...

• Realising that he’s gone back in time, Charlie tries to buy tickets to Galesburg.

• During the lunch hour, the next afternoon, Charlie withdraws all his savings (nearly 500 US Dollars) to buy old style currency notes.

• Charlie narrates this incident to Sam, his friend who works as a psychiatrist.

• Sam concludes that the Third Level is nothing but a mere figment of Charlie’s imagination.

• The miseries which the modern world, full of war, worry and terror, had to offer made Charlie hallucinate about the existence of the Third Level. 

Cont...

• Charlie succeeds in finding an evidence related to the Third Level’s  existence.

• He discovers a letter addressed to him by his psychiatrist friend Sam.  The letter was dated July 18, 1894.

• It seemed that Sam wasn’t as incredulous of the Third Level as he had appeared to be.

Cont...

• The story clearly explores the concept of time travel. Jack Finney explores the mentality of a common man. He succeeds in exposing the vulnerable side of a common man.

• A myriad of problems conspired to corrupt Charlie’s mind.

• It further robbed him of his senses, and in his panic induced state, he hallucinated about the Third Level at the Grand Central Station.

• Even though it was hard for Charlie to believe his eyes, he decided to stay there, in the year 1894.

Cont...

• What stands out in the entire story is the extent of ease with which Jack 

  Finney was able to bring out a common man’s craving for peace and 

  security.

• Like any common man, Charlie too appreciated the so-called 

  ‘pleasures’ of everyday life and the security of the familiar.

• He wanted to stay in the past because 1894 was much more peaceful, secure, serene. The world in 1894 hadn’t  seen the repercussions of war. 

• The insecurities that came with war, terror, and disease had got the better of common folks like Charlie who wanted a transient relief from the harsh realities of life.

Cont...

• All in all, The Third Level brings us to the conclusion that people find it hard to make peace with unpleasant things  they come across in life.

• The story further makes the reader realize that the past and future  are real illusions.

• They exist in the present, which is all there is.

Let's go for the assignment now.

Poll

Do you feel, Charley had reached the THIRD LEVEL in reality?

• Yes

• No

• May be

Open Ended

Support your answer with a suitable reason.

Open Ended

What, according to the psychiatrist, was Charley’s problem?

Open Ended

How did Charley make sure that he had actually travelled in the past?

Open Ended

What made Louisa, Charley’s wife, believe that the third level was a

reality?

Open Ended

Imagination is a ‘temporary refuge from reality’ Explain.

Open Ended

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

Why?

Open Ended

“The modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and

stress.” What are the ways in which we attempt to overcome them?

Open Ended

Apparent illogicality sometimes turns out to be a futuristic projection?

Discuss.