INTRODUCTION:

The Third Level by Jack Finney is about the harsh

realities of war. War has irreversible consequences
thus leaving people in a state of insecurity. It is also
about modern day problems and how common man
tends to escape reality by various means. In this story,
a man named Charley hallucinates and reaches the
third level of the Grand Central Station which only has
two levels. this narrative weaves a tapestry of
escapism, with its central character charley stumbling
upon a mysterious third level within the the bustling
grand central station a place seemingly untouched by
the constraints of time
ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Jack finney-1911-1995
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. After living in New York City and working for
an advertising agency there, he moved with his family
to California in the early 1950s. Finney's first short
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. It was made into a movie the
following year Jack Finney in this story conveys that
the life of modern man is full of insecurity, stress and
worries and he is unable to cope with these challenges
of modern life. So he wants to escape and run away
from the harsh realities of life. When he cannot cope
with the harsh realities, he wants to escape into a
fanciful world. He tries to find a level of existence that
will provide him peace, happiness and tranquility. He
dreams of a fantastic world which is devoid of any
stress. The author has given the title 'Third Level to
this fantastic world which is yearned for by the
modern man. The title 'Third Level' also refers to the
reality that exists only in the mind of modern man. It
does not exist in space and time. It is his mind that
helps him escape the tensions and harsh realities of
life. On the contrary, things were pretty nice and
peaceful in the earlier times. People did not suffer
from stress. They led a simple and carefree life full of
peace and serenity. They did not entertain fanciful and
unrealistic ideas. They were neither dreamers nor
escapists. They led a contented life
 SUMMARY:

The story revolves around a 31 year old man named

Charley, who experienced something weird. One day
after work coming from the Subway, he reached the
third level of the Grand Central station (which doesn’t
actually exist). He reminisces the entire experience
with his psychiatrist friend Sam. Charley thought he
experienced time travel and had reached somewhere
in the eighteen-nineties, a time before the world saw
two of its most deadliest wars. As soon as he realised
what time he is in, he immediately decided to buy two
tickets to Galesburg, Illinois; one for himself and the
other for his wife. Unfortunately, the currency used in
that century was different. Thus, the next day he
withdrew all his savings and got them converted even
if it meant bearing losses. He went looking for the
third level but failed to find it. It worried his wife and
the psychiatrist Sam who told him that he is
hallucinating in order to take refuge from reality and
miseries of the modern world which is full of worry.
Charley thus resorts to his stamp collection in order to
a distract himself when suddenly one day he finds a
letter from his friend Sam who had gone missing
recently. Sam wrote that he always wanted to believe
in the idea of third level and now that he is there
himself, he encourages Charley and Louisa to never
stop looking for it.
THEME OF THE STORY :
~1.Reality vs Imagination:

The tension between reality and imagination is a

central conflict in “The Third Level.” This tension is
most clearly embodied by Sam, who is Charley’s
psychiatrist. When Charley discovers Grand Central
Station’s third level, which is set in 1894 and could
potentially send Charley back in time permanently,
Sam disregards his experience as a waking dream.
Sam works with the human mind, and his profession
as a psychiatrist causes him to chalk Charley’s
experience up to a mental defect rather than a
genuine and transcendental experience. In this way,
he represents the pragmatic realist of the modern era,
in contrast to the more idealist dreamer that Charley
represents in his pursuit of the elusive third level.

~2. Escapism: “A study of fantasy and reality ”:

The Third Level” explores the idea of physical and
mental escapism in the face of societal ennui and
emotional dissatisfaction. When the
protagonist, Charley, discovers a way to time travel to
the past via a hidden third level of Grand Central
Station, his psychiatrist, Sam, tells him that what he’s
experiencing is a waking dream caused by his desire
to escape modern life. While Charley does not agree
that the third level is a figment of his imagination, he
does agree with Sam that he, along with most other
modern people, have a desire to escape everyday life
due to the unhappy times they live in. However, in
contrast to Sam’s ideas of escapism via daydreams,
Charley’s means of escape is a literal exit from the
20th century into 1894, where the low-grade despair
of modernity will no longer haunt him. Ironically, this
exit is ultimately enjoyed not by Charley but by Sam,
who discovers the third level for himself and is able to
set up an entirely new life in the past, which he finds
significantly more fulfilling than his modern life. Thus,
throughout the story, Finney portrays escapism as a
means to rid oneself of emotional pain and the
dissatisfaction of modern life.

~3.Modernity and Nostalgia:

In “The Third Level,” Jack Finney uses time travel to

explore the melancholy of modern life and the
common desire to return to simpler times. The story’s
protagonist, Charley, is exhausted by life in the mid-
20th century, and his generation is especially
traumatized from living through both World Wars. He
expresses envy of those older than him, such as his
grandfather, who he believes was a happier person
because he grew up in a kinder, more stable era of
history. As a result, when Charley discovers a third
level of Grand Central Station that takes him back to
1894, he attempts to buy tickets to permanently
return to what he views as a more peaceful and simple
time. However, his modern currency prevents him
from buying tickets, and though he later obtains
enough 19th-century currency to make a life for
himself in 1894, he is unable to find the third level
again and therefore misses his chance to escape
modernity. While Charley’s failure initially seems to
suggest that a return to the past is impossible, the
story reveals that Sam, Charley’s psychiatrist who told
Charley that the third level was a figment of his
imagination, succeeds in finding the third level and
time-travelling to live in the past. This twist ending
hints that even the most cynical and modern
individual can find solace in the past when faced with
an unfavorable present. What’s more, the fact that
Charley’s psychiatrist is the one to leave behind
modernity suggests that even the most seemingly
emotionally balanced people in modern times still feel
the pull of nostalgia.

~4.The Trauma of War:

One of the subtler themes of “The Third Level” is the

enormous trauma suffered by American society in the
aftermath of both World War I and World War II. The
story was published in 1950, which was only a few
decades after World War I and a mere five years after
World War II. Throughout the story, the
protagonist, Charley, laments the anxiety of modern
society and yearns for a simpler time when the world
was a friendlier place. Much of his desire to travel to
the past comes from the fact that it is a time before the
World Wars; for instance, he envies his grandfather
for having grown up in a time of peace. As a result,
when he discovers the third level, which grants him
the chance to travel back to 1894, he’s eager to do so
in order to live in a time when both World Wars are
still a long way off. His desire to escape the present,
then, is not so much a means to escape his individual
emotional trauma—he’ll still have his own memories
of living through the wars—but to escape a society
that has been profoundly affected by these wars, to
the point that everyone around him is constantly
unhappy and distant. In this way, the collective pain of
the two World Wars underlies the nostalgia, idealism,
and escapism that defines Charley’s character.
CHARACTER SKETCH:
1.CHARLEY:

Charley is the protagonist of “The Third Level.” 31-

year-old stamp collector, Charley describes himself as
a perfectly ordinary man who has nothing unusual
about him and is in fact indistinguishable from most
other adult men of his generation. His two most
significant relationships are with his wife, Louisa, and
his psychiatrist friend, Sam, although he feels
alienated from both of them when they refuse to
believe in his experience on the secret third level
of Grand Central Station. Sam in particular credits this
experience with Charley’s imaginative and escapist
nature, although Charley claims that his escapism is
not unique to him, since most people want to escape
the despair of modern society. Charley recounts his
experience with the third level to the reader, revealing
that the entire level exists in the year 1894 and thus
allows individuals to travel back in time by buying
train tickets. While Charley attempts to buy two
tickets to Galesburg, Illinois for him and Louisa, he is
unable to do so when the clerk rejects his modern
currency. Although he is unable to discover the third
level again, his experience is vindicated when he finds
a letter from Sam in his grandfather’s stamp collection
revealing that Sam found the third level and made it to
1894 Galesburg.

2.LOUISA:
Louisa is Charley’s wife. She is supportive of Charley
and dislikes some of Sam’s hypotheses about him,
such as Sam’s suggestion that Charley is unhappy.
Even so, she is initially on Sam’s side and does not
want Charley to look for the third level again after
hearing about his initial experience there. However,
this soon changes after she and Charley discover that
Sam has made it to 1894 via the third level. After
learning this, she helps Charley resume his search for
the third level, suggesting that she, too, longs to
escape modernity for the past.

3.CHARLEY’S PSYCHIATRIST(Sam):
Charley’s psychiatrist explains away Charley’s
encounter with the third level as a moment of mental
escapism. In this way, he functions as the pragmatic
and modern foil to Charley, who is much more open to
unusual experiences and wishes to escape modernity.
However, things take a dramatic turn at the end of the
story when Charley discovers that his friend Sam has
found the third level and, unlike Charley, was able to
return to 1894 Galesburg. In the very last line of the
story, it’s revealed that Sam was actually Charley’s
psychiatrist. Since he cannot be a psychiatrist in the
19th century, Sam instead chooses to follow his true
dream of opening a business with the large amount of
old-time currency he was able to buy before his
journey. With this ending, then, the story suggests that
even people like Sam, who have ostensibly bought into
the cold pragmatism of modern society, desire the
simpler life represented by the 19th century in the
story.

SIGNIFICANCE OF SAM’S LETTER TO CHARLEY:

Sam's letter to Charley is pivotal in the story The
Third Level As it confirms Sam's existence on the third
level and encourages Charley and his wife to keep
searching for it. The letter drives the plot forward and
provides crucial information about the mystery
surrounding the third level. It also reveals Sam's
disillusionment with the modern world and his
yearning for a simpler, more peaceful past.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
~Understanding Escapism:
After studying third level it helps to identify and
explain how the story uses the "Third Level" as a
metaphor for Charley's desire to escape the stresses
and complexities of modern life. It helps to
understand how the story explores the human
tendency to seek refuge in the past or an idealized
version of it. understanding the story's themes of
escapism, mental health, and the allure of the past.
~Impact of workplace environment on mental health:
The story highlights the impact that the external
pressures can have on mental health by creating
healthier environment at work companies can reduce
the need for individuals to escape into fantasies or
unhealthy copying mechanisms.

CONCLUSION: Reality or fantasy

. In "The Third Level," the narrative weaves together
reality and fantasy to explore the human desire for
escape and the allure of the past. The story uses a
realistic setting of Grand Central Station and everyday
life, but introduces the fantastical element of a "third
level" that transports the protagonist, Charley, to
1894. This blend of reality and fantasy creates a story
that makes the reader question what is real and what
is imagined. The story also explores the theme of
escapism, suggesting that the past, even in the form of
a fantasy, can offer a refuge from the complexities of
modern life.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
NCERT ENGLISH VISTAS TEXTBOOK
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