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The Third Level: by Jack Finney

The story is about a man named Charley who believes he discovered a "third level" of the Grand Central Station in New York that allows him to travel back in time to the 1890s. He excitedly tells his psychiatrist friend Sam about the experience. However, Sam believes Charley is experiencing a "waking dream" as a way to escape the troubles of their modern times. Charley tries in vain to return to the third level to bring his wife with him. He fixates on the idea as a refuge from reality. In the end, Charley receives a letter from his missing friend Sam, who now claims to also be in the third level, encouraging Charley to keep looking for the way back.

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2K views5 pages

The Third Level: by Jack Finney

The story is about a man named Charley who believes he discovered a "third level" of the Grand Central Station in New York that allows him to travel back in time to the 1890s. He excitedly tells his psychiatrist friend Sam about the experience. However, Sam believes Charley is experiencing a "waking dream" as a way to escape the troubles of their modern times. Charley tries in vain to return to the third level to bring his wife with him. He fixates on the idea as a refuge from reality. In the end, Charley receives a letter from his missing friend Sam, who now claims to also be in the third level, encouraging Charley to keep looking for the way back.

Uploaded by

Abhiram Vetcha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Third Level

By Jack Finney
About The Author
o Walter Braden "Jack" Finney (born John Finney) was an American Author.
He was born on October 2, 1911 in USA and died on November 16, 1995.

o Finney was given name ‘’Jack Finney’’ after his father died when he was 3
yrs old.

o Graduated in 1934 from Knox college, Illinios 

o Married Marguerite Guest and had two children. 

o Moved with family to California in 1950 

o Died of Pneumonia on November 14, 1995. 

o Best known works are science fictions and thrillers.


Introduction
o The narrator interweaves fantasy with reality in
projection of time travel. 
o When Charley, a young New York Commuter loses
his way and finds himself in what he thinks is third
level of Grand central station in New York. 
o The station has subways on two levels from where commuters
take trains to different destinations. No third level was
ever built. ​
o However, Charley believes in existence of third level, operating
in time frame of 1890s. ​
o From this level, he wants to travel with his wife Louisa to
Galesburg, Illinois ​
o For him, it is part of reality, but his psychiatrist friend calls it
‘’waking dream wish fulfilment’’​
Summary Of The Third Level
o 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 does not actually exist). 

o He reminisces the entire experience with his psychiatrist friend


Sam. Charley thought he experienced time travel and had reached
somewhere in the 1890s, a time before the world saw two of its
deadliest wars. 

o As soon as he realized 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.

Galesburg
o 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. 

o Charley thus resorts to his stamp collection in order to 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. 

o The story brings us to the conclusion that people find it hard to make
peace with unpleasant things they come across in life. Like any common
man, Charley too appreciated the so-called pleasures of Everday's life. He
wants to stay in past as 1894 is more peaceful and serene.

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