CUET English Chapter For Comprehension-The third level

The narrator met a psychiatrist because he was sure he had been on the third level of the Grand Central Station. He was also aware of the fact that only two levels of the station existed and the presidents of the rail road would even swear on a stack of timetables to prove this point. The need to meet a psychiatrist became urgent because he was in a dilemma.

Charley told the psychiatrist about his belief in the existence of the third level at the Grand Central Station but was told that it was only a waking- dream wish fulfillment. The psychiatrist also added that Charley was unhappy because of the insecurity, fear, war, worry and that he just wanted to escape just like everyone else.

Charley argued that his own grandfather lived at a time when things were pretty nice and peaceful and he was the one who had actually started his collection of stamps. Charley refused to believe that his stamp collecting was ‘a temporary refuge’ from reality.

Charley describes himself as just an ordinary guy, thirty-one years old. He wore a tan gabardine suit and a straw hat with a fancy band. He was just like other men he passed on the road and he was not trying to escape from anything.

Charley himself had admitted that he had been in and out of Grand Central

hundreds of times and was always bumping into new doorways and stairs and corridors. It was so easy to get lost there. He had once got into a tunnel about a mile long and came out in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel. Another time he had come up in an office building in forty-sixth Street, three blocks away.

Charley thought that Grand Central was growing like a tree, pushing out new corridors and stair cases, like roots. There was probably a long tunnel that nobody knew about, feeling its way under the city, on its way to Times Square, and maybe another to Central Park. He thought Grand Central had been an exit, a way of escape.

Charley felt there was a tunnel that nobody knew about, which was feeling its way under the city at that moment too, on its way to Times Square, and maybe another to Central Park. Grand Central, he felt, was like an exit, a way of escape and perhaps that’s how he got into the tunnel. He didn’t want to tell the psychiatrist, for he would not have believed him and would have wanted to treat him.

Charley first thought that he was on the second level, but then saw a room which was smaller, there were fewer ticket windows, and train gates, and the information booth was wooden and old-looking. A man in the booth wore a green eyeshade with long black sleeve protectors. The lights were dim and flickered because they were open-flame gaslights.

The man whom Charley met, wore a derby hat, a black four-button suit with tiny lapels, and he had a big, black handlebar moustache. He pulled out a golden watch from his vest pocket, looked at the time and frowned.

Charley noticed that everyone at the station was dressed like eighteen-ninety something. He never saw so many beards, side burns, and fancy moustaches in his life. A woman he saw, was wearing a dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves and a skirt to the top of her high-buttoned shoes. On the tracks, he saw a locomotive, a very small Currier and Ives locomotive with a funnel shaped stack.

Charley had walked up to the newsboy to confirm what he thought was true, i.e. the third level of the Grand Central as he saw existing in the year 1894. He saw the newsboy selling the newspaper, The World, which hadn’t been published for years and which carried the lead story about President Cleveland. Later, he found a copy of the same newspaper in the Public Library Files dated June 11, 1894.

Galesburg was a wonderful town with big old frame houses, huge lawns, and tremendous trees whose branches met overhead and roofed over the streets. In 1894, summer evenings were twice as long, and people sat on their lawns, the men smoking.

The clerk at the ticket counter stared hard at Charley and also glanced at his fancy hatbands. But he figured the fare. When Charley was about to pay the fare for two tickets, he told him that it wasn’t money and if Charley tried to cheat him, he wouldn’t get far. Charley went away from there as fast as he could.

Charley had got his three hundred dollars out of the bank and got them changed into old-style currency so that he could go back to the third level and buy the tickets to Galesburg. For his three hundred dollars he had got only two hundred dollars old-style currency but he didn’t mind that. The only consolation was that in the year 1894, the two hundred dollars would have more value, as things were much cheaper then than they were now.

Despite Charley’s efforts to go to the third level, he was unable to find it again. He shared his experience with his wife, who got worried. He went back to his stamps. His friend Sam had disappeared and nobody knew where he was but Charley was certain that he had found the third level and gone there. Charley’s description of the place had fascinated him and he had gone there, in 1894.

Charley found the first-day cover among the oldest ones he had and discovered that it had been mailed to his grandfather at his home in Galesburg. The postmark showed that it had been mailed on July 18, 1894. The stamp was a six-cent, dull brown with a picture of President Garfield.

Charley read the note that said the fact that the third level existed, was true. The note signed by Sam also read that he had been at Galesburg for two weeks and was enjoying himself there. Sam had urged Charley and his wife Louisa to keep looking for the third level till they could find it and join him. It was worth the effort.

The most shocking and disturbing discovery Charley made was that the note had been sent by his friend Sam who had recently disappeared. Charley found out that he had exchanged a large sum of present time dollars and bought eight hundred dollars worth of old-style currency which he wanted to invest in the business in 1894 at Galesburg. He also admitted that Sam was his psychiatrist who could not go back to his ‘old business’ (psychiatry) in 1894.

According to Charley’s psychiatrist Sam, it was just a waking dream wish fulfillment and provided escape from modern day fear, insecurity, worry, etc. On the other hand, the vivid description that Charley provides indicates that the place really existed and later Sam exchanging money, disappearing and sending a letter in the first day cover perhaps prove that it was not an escape but a reality.

A first day cover is the first day of issue of a stamp or the day on which it is released by the postal authorities. It is usually a collector’s item as it indicates the date and time of release. It became important in the story because Charley discovered a first day cover in his grandfather’s collection which he had not seen before. It dated back to 18 July 1894 and had been sent by Sam for Charley. It proved that in reality the third level might have existed as Sam had gone there.

Charley, the main character of Jack Finney’s ‘The Third Level’ gave up hope of ever finding the third level again. He resumed his stamp collecting to pass his time. It was then that he noticed a first day cover which he had not seen before and should not have been there. It bore the stamp of July 18, 1894 and had been posted from Galesburg, Illinois. As Charley read the contents of the letter, he was shocked and surprised to read that it was Sam, his friend who had posted it to him. Earlier he had only hoped that Charley was right about the third level but now he actually believed in it. He had found it and had been there for two weeks. He admired the place as it was peaceful, people were warm and friendly. He urged Charley and Louisa to continue their search for the place and not give up.

The letter brought out the difference between the two worlds –the peaceful one of the pre-world war era and the modern world full of stress, worry and insecurities. People led a life of fun, enjoyment and little pleasures meant a lot to them in 1894.

In ‘The Third Level’, Jack Finney treats his favourite subject ‘Time’ in a new dimension. The Third Level is a point where the past and the present meet.

Charley, the protagonist loses his way. He finds himself in what he thinks is the third level of the Grand Central Station in New York. He realizes that something is different and discovers that he has somehow reached the year 1894.

It is the period Finney would want to be in. The responses and happiness of the three characters in the story revolve around the third level. Charley is excited and wants two tickets for Galesburg, a peaceful town in the pre-war period. Sam, Charley’s psychiatrist friend attributes it to his desire to escape from the stress of life. Later on, Sam drew all his life’s savings from the bank and exchanged it for 1894 currency. He was able to cross time and reach a quieter, more peaceful past where his services as a psychiatrist were not required. Louisa did not believe that one could cross over the time dimension till Charley received a letter from Sam.

Jack Finney leaves the readers wondering what ‘The Third Level’ really is. Even though Charley is able to find proof and make the transition back and forth in time, Sam, his friend is already there and enjoying himself. The reader gets transported into the shadowy, eerie world of dreams, desires and reality.

b) levels of Grand Central

a) he had been there

b) meet a psychiatrist

a) unhappy

c) grandfather

c) stamp collecting

d) Roosevelt

c) 31 years

b) he was in a hurry

a) he wanted to get home to Louisa, his wife

c) Vanderbilt Avenue

a) hundred times

c) Roosevelt Hotel

a) tree

b) an exit

c) talking of people

c) fewer ticket windows

a) green eyeshade

d) open-flame gas lights

a) brass spittoons

b) in his pocket

b) big black handlebar

c) they belonged to eighteen-ninety something

d) he knew that he had gone back in time

c) The World

d) President Cleveland

c) June 11, 1894

c) Galesburg, Illinois

d) twice as long

d) twenty years off

c) peaceful world

d) two tickets

b) His wife

b) old-style bills

a) the clerk threatened him

a) two hundred dollars

b) thirteen cents a dozen

d) stamp-collecting

c) Charley’s friend Sam Weiner

b) his grandfather

c) President Garfield

a) Sam

c) psychiatrist

c) psychiatrist

b) July 18, 1894