XII Eng. Supp. Reader Lesson 1. The Third Level

THIRD LEVEL

I.   SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS:

1.     What did Sam say about Charley’s visit to Third Level?

Sam appeared not to have believed Charley’s visit to the Third Level. He called it a waking-dream wish fulfillment. He said that Charley was unhappy because the modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and all the rest of it. This, Sam said, made Charley wanting a desire to escape. He cited his stamp collecting hobby an example of his desire to take temporary refuge from reality.

2.     How did charley get to the third level ?

Charley started from Vanderbilt Avenue and got into the Grand Central. He went down the steps to the first level. Then he went down another flight to the second level. He ducked into an arched doorway heading for the subway--- and he got lost. The corridor he got into began angling left and went downward. He did not see anyone, did not hear any sound. The tunnel then turned sharp left and he went down a short flight of stairs and came out on the Third Level of the Grand Central Station.

3.     Why did Charley run away from the Third Level ?

Charley always had a fascination for Galesburg, Illinois. He wanted to go there to enjoy a place twenty years before the World War I. So he went to the ticket window to buy two tickets for him and for his wife Louisa. The clerk was staring at him when he started counting the money and nodded at the bills. He warned him for trying to cheat him.

4.     What kind of dress were the people wearing at the third level ?

The dress was also totally different the man in the booth was wearing a green eye shade and long black sleeve protectors. A man pulled out a gold watch from his waist to see the time. He was wearing a derby hat, a black four- button suit with small lapels. He had a big black handle bar mustache then a woman was wearing a dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves and skirts to the top of her high buttoned shoes

5.     How did Charley confirm that he had traveled back in time ?

After seeing the 19^th century platform and the small Currier & Ives locomotive he knew that he had gone back in time. Just to confirm he walked over to a newsboy and looked at the newspapers at his feet. “The World” was being sold. The paper had not been published for so many years. The lead story in the paper was something about President Cleveland and was dated June 11, 1894.

6.     How did Loisa react to Charley’s search for the III level ?

Loisa initially was not only apprehensive but worried as well. She was worried because the psychiatrist said that Charley was unwell. She was more worried, when Charley changed the currency and was in a frantic search for the corridor that led to the Third Level. She didn’t want him to look for the Third Level and told him so.

II.   Long Answer type Questions :

1.          Do you think Charlie really got to the third level?

[Note: when questions seeking your judgement are asked, you are free to make your judgement supported by textual evidence.]

Yes, in my opinion, Charley does get into the third level in the story.

Assuming the story to be a kind of fantasy fiction, one should not dwell too much in the real world’s possibilities of happenings.

 Taking the story as it is one need not wonder where Sam had left. Though Sam tells Charley that it is his “waking-dream wish fulfillment” he “got to wishing” that he was right and then “got to believing” that he was right, Why else did he buy eight hundred dollars worth of old style currency? He has been missing since two weeks and therefore one feels he must have got to the third level. His letter confirms that.

 Though initially Louisa was apprehensive, she too has started believing the presence of Third level and is searching for it considering the facts before her.

When all the three characters in the story believe in the existence of the third level, one has no reason to question their experience.  (159 words)

Does the third Level Exist or Not

Charley, the main character of the story finds a portal which leads to 1894. He tries to go to his hometown, Galesburg. But, because he didn't have any currency of 1894, he had to postpone his plans for the future. He exchanged his 3 hundred dollar bills for less than 2 hundred dollars of that of 1894's currency. However, he never finds the third level again. When he tells this to his wife and his psychiatrist friend about this, both think that like philately, this is also another way to take refuge from the realities of the world. However, the proof of the third level's existence comes from the most unexpected source, his psychiatrist friend - Sam. Sam sends Charlie a letter telling him about the third level. When Sam heads over to 1894 through the third level, he sends a first day cover to his Grandfather's address. His Grandfather thinking that the first day cover was sent to him by himself, adds it to his collection of stamps and never opens it thinking that there is nothing in that envelope but blank paper. In the story, you will find a line '...he started my collection'. It means that Charlie's Grandfather had a collection of stamps along with first day covers which was passed over to Charlie. When Charlie was looking at his collection, he found the letter which Sam had written to him and that letter gave solid proof of the third level's existence. You might be confused by the last part of the story, but it's really simple you see... the concept is something like something you do in the past which has direct effect on the present. Charlie received the letter because Sam wrote it to him in 1894. Charlie didn't exist in 1894 because in 1894, he wasn't born. So, Sam had to think and write a letter to Charlie's Grandfather who's hobby was to collect stamps alike Charlie and Sam knew that if somehow he could make his Grandfather into adding the letter to his collection, then it would straightly go off to Charlie as Charlie's collection was started by Charlie's grandfather. So, I think it's clear that Charlie got that letter only when Sam sent it to him. He didn't receive it until Sam actually went to 1894 and wrote a letter to Charlie's grandfather. It's like this...something someone does in the past which has a direct ( in this case immediate) effect on the present you are living in.

Charley used to actually go there on the third level somehow.Like its there in Harry Potter, when all the wizards and witches entered platform 9 3/4 and the other people couldn't, similary, Charley could go on the third level and the others couldn't.And when he used to tell his wife and his psychiatrist, Sam about how the third level is like, they used to think that he's stressed so he's imagining such stuff.

But later, somehow Sam also while wandering went to the third level and sent a letter to Charley stating that he is in Galesburg in the 19th century. And he came back to take old currency and went there back again. And so, Charley's wife also came into believing that the third level exists and they're looking for it.

Reasons for writing the third Level

In the 1950s, people were scared. The possibility of the atom bomb was fresh in everyone's mind. Kids had to do duck and cover drills at school. The Sputnik had been launched into the skies by the Russians. The Cold War was heating up. Demagogues were saying communists may be hiding in our own government.
In this atmosphere, Jack Finney wrote a book about escape. In "The Third Level," a collection of short stories, Finney writes about people who are upset with the world they live in, they seek some idyllic place in the country's recent past. In the story "The Third Level," it's a mysterious level of Grand Central Station that leads to a town in Ohio in 1894; in "Second Chance" a restored car brings a man back to the 1920s; and in "Of Missing Persons" offers an escape into 'romantic Verna' a planet of paradise.
In most of the stories, Finney indulges in the pleasures of escape. Everyone wants out and many people find it. In a couple of stories, he views escape in a different way. In "I'm Scared" the collective wish to escape has fractured Time and strange things begin to happen. In the final story of the book, "Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket," Finney turns the concept of escape around. A man loses a piece of paper on a ledge high above a New York City street. Dedicated to his work, he goes out there, only to succumb to fear after the window of his apartment closes. From then on, he's desperately trying to escape into his own life.
The stories do suffer a bit in that all the themes have been used time and again since then. The "The Twilight Zone" used some of these same ideas in a couple of episodes. Stephen King upped the tension a bit and rewrote "Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket" as "The Ledge." (By the way, in "Danse Macabre," King talks a lot about Finney, including a comparison with "Twilight Zone" in which Finney comes out on top.) And time travel has become a cliche in so many stories.
Nevertheless, it's a charming book and well worth your time. I don't think "The Third Level" is in print anymore, but the collection "About Time" includes most of his time travel stories. It's a shame "Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket" isn't in print, however.

As a Medium of Escape

1. Jack Finney’s story ‘The Third Level’ interweaves between fantasy and reality. The Third Level is medium of escape for Charley from the present harsh realities of modern life which is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and tension. It is a safe route for Charley to go to Galesburg in order to escape from trouble. So he tries to purchase two tickets for Galesburg, Illinois from the Third Level at Grand Central. The Third Level is merely a fantasy that exists in Charley’s mind only. His psychiatrist friend, Sam calls it a waking- dream-wish-fulfillment. In reality Charley fails to cope up with the modern world which is full of fears and worries. He just wants to escape. He takes it for a reality and plans to go to Galesburg. He even exchanges his new bills of three hundred dollars for old style bills. But he is never able to find the Third Level. It is because the Third Level has existed in his fantasy only. Thus it can be said that the Third-Level is a medium of escape for Charley.

2. Yes, Charley found the third level as a medium of escape because he was suffering from all the modern day insecurities,war,worries and stress caused by todays work and societal culture. He had a fascination for the past...this is visible in his attachment to the stamp album inherited from his grandfather;so his idea of true happiness was already ingrained in his mind as a return to the past.Thus in his mind he has always wanted to go back in time, so he found the third level as a fulfillment of his dream .