Vistas Chapter 1 The Third Level

For Charley, Grand Central Station of New York has three levels. Actually, there are only two levels. There does not exist any third level. The modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war and worries. Charley just wants to escape. So he wanders into the fanciful world of 1894 which is much away from the harsh realities of life. The writer Jack Finney uses the Third Level on Grand Central Station as a medium of escape. Consequently Charley wants to escape in the old world. Even his psychiatrist Sam calls it just a waking-dream wish fulfilment.

In order to buy two tickets to go to Galesburg, Charley drew three hundred dollars from the bank so that he could arrange old currency. He tried his best to find the corridor that led to the Third Level at Grand Central Station but he never found it. Since, the Third Level is just a medium for escape so Charley is not only lingering but has also entered into the world of fantasy and romance. Hence he would not be able to reach there.

In reality the Third Level is the creation of Charley's own mind, fantasy and whim. He is inhabiting in the modern world which is full of insecurity, fear, war, worries, stress and tension. He has to confront with them round the clock. The harsh realities of life are making our stay unpleasant and unbearable. There is a mental tension which is transforming our lives burdensome and heavy. Charley has an escapist mind. Even stamps collecting is a temporary refuge from reality. So he talks to his psychiatrist friend Sam about the third level at the Grand Central Station. He terms it as a “ waking-dream wish fulfilment.”

In this lesson even the writer Jack Finney interweaves Charley in the midst of fantasy and reality. The compulsions and realities of modern life make Charley escape into a world of fancy and romance. There is a refererence to his grand father's stamp collection of 1894 in the lesson. In those days there was peace as well as tranquility. So there was no need for escape. For Charley the Grand Central is an exit and he wanders down to the third level and finds himself into the world of 1894 which used to be a romantic living. So the Third Level is indirectly a mode of escape for Charley.

One can notice that Sam's letter to Charley is engulfed with series of mysteries. When Charley was fussing with his stamp-collection in the night, he comes across an envelope among his oldest first day covers. In a way it should not have been there, but it was there. He had not seen that envelope before. It was there because someone had mailed it to his grandfather at his home in Galesburg, Illinois and it had been there since July 18, 1894. The post-mark revealed that the stamp was a six-cent with a picture at President Garfield.

Generally, the first day cover has only a blank paper in the envelope but there the paper was written and signed by Sam. It was only addressed to Charley. Sam had written that he had found the Third Level. It means that Charley was correct about the Third Level. Further he had been putting up at Galesburg, Illinois for two weeks where people had been enjoying a romantic life. He asked Charley and Louisa to go there. They should keep looking till they found the Third Level.

It is rather much astonishing how such a letter was never noticed earlier. It is all the more surprising how Sam disappeared and nobody knew his where abouts. But Charley had doubts about his (Sams) presence in Galesburg. It is also mysterious that the letter is written by Sam and is addressed to Charley on July 18, 1894. It is also strange to note that Sam is not else except Charley's psychiatrist.

We are all living in the modern world. It is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and stress. We have lost all our peace of mind. We can be butchered within moments. The use of atomic bombs and other fatal ammunition has made our lives like a hell. We do not have safety. The crimes are increasing day by day. There is utter chaos, confusion, fear, trouble terror and umemployment in the society. So the mind of every one has got stuck in the midst of tension and fear. There is so much violence, selfishness, despise and hatred in the world that none is ready to see the other progressing. The affluent nations are trying to overpower the developing and underdeveloped countries. There is constant competition of manufacturing, hoarding and developing dangerous weapons. Thus, the harsh realities of life make our living quite unpleasant and bitter. So we try to overcome them through day-dreaming and wishful thinking like Charley.

In the past our ancestors used to lead a free life. They did not need any refuge from reality. Things were pretty, nice and peaceful in those days. But Charley expresses his unhappiness and he wants to escape. So he wanders down into the Third Level. The writer has provided stamp collecting as a means of temporary refuge from reality. We can overcome all these problems through meditation and devising ways to the welfare of mankind.

Definitely one can see an intersection of time and space in the story “The Third Level” since the story is constantly moving between the past and the present. Charley is an ordinary man of thirty-one years old. He wears a tan gaberdine suit and a straw hat with a fancy band. He lives and works in an office in New York. This city is full of insecurities, fear, war, worries, stress and tension. People feel unsafe and troubled so that they want to escape.

The Third Level at Grand Central Station is a medium of an easy escape for Charley. It is nothing but a ‘waking-dream-wish-fulfilment.’ At the Third Level, one can see flickering gas lights, spittoons, beards, side bums and fancy mustaches of 1894. There Charley glimpses a very small Currier and Ives Locomotive with a funnel-shaped stack. There the tickets are available in old currency. Charley returns and arranges for the old-style bills. He decides to go to Galesburg using the Third Level. But he can never find the Third Level again. So there is a lot of intersection of space and time at the story. Further one can note that Galesburg is a place where people live in big old frame houses having huge lawns and tremendous trees. This is clear cut contrast of modern world of New York with Galesburg.

Sometimes which appears to be illogical at a point of time, proves to be logic in the future. A thing which is not worthy today may prove to be useful in our future. Charley is troubled with the insecurity, fear, war, stress, tension and worry of the modem world. He is unable to cope with the harsh realities. So he indulges in “waking-dream wish fulfilment.”

For him the Third Level is a convenient medium of escape. Here he escapes into the old world of 1894 in order to lead a peaceful life in Galesburg where the people are leading a life of romance and are living in big houses. Here the escape is not in the past but in a futuristic world of fantasy. In his work of fiction, once George Orwell imagined about some radical changes in the communist world of the Soviet Union. He drew a picture that turned out to be a futuristic projection. The Soviet Union was dis-integrated and there came an end to the cold war between the USA and the Soviet Union.

Philately is an art of collecting stamps that transports us into the real past. It is one of the effective and common ways to keep the past alive. People cultivate hobbies like coincollecting, newpapers and cartoon clippings etc. in order to tie up with the contemporary as well as the past world. In this lesson, Charley, in his possession of stamp-collecting, finds some of the oldest “first day covers”. It is mailed to his grandfather at his home in Galesburg. It is there since July 18,1894. The postmark shows the date with a picture of President Garfield. The stamp offers a chance to transport into the beautiful and romantic world of 1894.

It is our tendency to move constantly into the past, the present and the future. Even there are some people who go on collecting rare things which can serve to keep our past alive. They revive our memories and help in comparing our past with the present.

In both the stories fantasy and reality are interwoven. In the story ‘Adventure’ Narlikar tries to prove that reality is limited to what we perceive. It has been proved that on firing an electron from a source, it may go anywhere. Even all the parts can exist together. Gangadhar's mind suffers such a transition from one world to another and back again.

In the same way, Charley in the Third Level wanders away from the rush, strain and crowd of New York to the Third Level at the Grand Central Station. It is the world of 1894 when he witnesses flickering gaslights, beards, sideburns, fancy mustaches and small Currier and Ives locomotives. There is a sweet world of Galesburg where people are living and enjoying to their best.

Thus both the stories present fantasy as well as reality

Whenever Charley enters the Grand Central Station, he finds new corridors, stair cases and tunnels. He finds the station like a huge tree, which keeps on spreading its roots and branches all over. Once he entered a tunnel and instead of reaching the station, he reached the lobby of a hotel. Similarly, one day he reached an office building, which was three blocks away.

After becoming late in his office, Charley went to Grand Central to reach home early. There he entered in a tunnel that ended in a corridor. The corridor turned left and slanted downward. Charley went on walking and reached a flight of stairs that took him to another level of the station. It was the Third Level even quite different from other two levels.

Charley goes down the steps to the first level. Then he walks down the second level. The suburban trains leave from there. Then he finds himself on the third level. He was convinced that he had reached the third level at Grand Central Station. He found it a different world of gas lights, brass spittoons, derby hats, beards, side bums and fancy moustaches.

At the Third Level, the rooms were smaller with ticket windows and train gates. The wooden information booth was in the centre having old looks. Open flame gas lights were flickering. People were wearing old styled dresses. A very small Currier and Ives Locomotive with a funnel shaped stack was standing there.

Charley claimed that there were three levels at Grand Central Station but no one was ready to believe. When Charley told his friend Sam about the Third Level at Grand Central Station, he analysed that it was just a “waking-dream-wish-fulfilment.” It was nothing but an attempt to escape from the harsh realities of modem life which is full of insecurity, war, fear, worry and tension.

One day Charley turned into Grand Central from Vanderbilt Avenue. He went down the steps to the First Level. Then he walked down to the Second Level. It was the place from where the sub-urban trains left. Then he ducked into an arched door-way heading for the sub-way. He was often lost from this place.

At the Third Level everyone in the station was dressed like in 1890 or so. There were brass spittoons on the floor. The gas lights were dim and flickering. Besides this he saw a very small Currier and Ives Locomotive. People had beards, side-bums and funny mustaches. They used watches and had kept them in their vest pockets. They wore derby hats, four bottoned-suits with tiny lapels. Women wore dresses with leg of mutton sleeves, skirts to the top of high buttoned-shoes.

Charley went to the ticket counter for two tickets to Galesburg. He paid the currency of the present world which was totally different from 1890s world. On seeing the big notes, the clerk got stunned and he thought that Charley was trying to skin him. He threatened to get him arrested. Charley left and fled for old style currency.

When a new stamp is issued, the stamp collectors buy that stamp and use them to the envelops on the very first day of the sale. The

new stamp gets the post mark and the date. This is called the “first day cover”. The receiver never opens it because he knows that he has himself just put a blank paper in it. Charley found this type of cover in his stamp-collection.

When Charley reached Third Level of the Grand Central Station, he found everything delved deep in the old style. In order to confirm, he went to the shop at a newspaper seller. He glanced at the stack of the papers and saw a newspaper named ‘The World’ of June 11,1894. This confirmed that he was in the year 1894.

Galesburg Illinois is still a wonderful town with big old frame houses, huge lawns and tremendous trees. In 1894, it reflected a world of romance, leisure, freeness and repose. Summer evenings were twice as long. The people sat out on their lawns. The men smoked cigars and talked quickly. The women sat in leisure waving palm-leaf fans. Charley wanted to go back there to escape from insecurity, fear, war, worry and tension of the modern world.

Charley went to the ticket counter for purchasing two tickets for Galesburg, Illinois. On counting the money the clerk stared at him and warned him not to decive. Charley immediately went to the bank and drew out three hundred dollars and bought old-style currency. When he went to buy the tickets, he could never find the corridor that led to the Third Level at Grand Central Station.

That night Charley was looking at his oldest “first day covers”. There was an old envelope duly stamped. It was mailed to his grandfather at his house in Galesburg. It had been there since July 18,1894 . There was a post mark over the envelope with a picture of President Garfield. The stamp was a six-cent and dull brown. All this surprised Charley very much.

Charley's friend Sam, the psychiatrist had sent that “first day cover” on July 18,1894. The letter was signed by Sam and it stated that Charley was right about the Third Level. Sam claimed that he had found the Third Level. Regarding Galesburg it stated that it was romantic and nice city. People were enjoying piano and singing “Seeing Nelly Home.” Charley was advised to keep on looking for the Third Level. It was a worth seeing place.

Charley knew that there were only two levels at Grand Station. In his fantasy he visited the Third Level as well. There he felt a strange mystery of 1894. But his senses realized that he was going wrong. He himself said,‘I thought it was wrong’ when he entered the corridor leading to the Third Level. So he took the step of consulting a psychiatrist.

Both Sam and Charley are the victims of whim that a Third Level exists, because it gives them a way to run away from the troubles caused due to their burdened lives. The concept of peaceful city of lawns and huge trees gives birth to a craving to be in this world. So they imagine themselves in Galesburg living with comfort and peace. They know in reality that nothing exists like the Third Level, but their longing for the mental peace compell them to believe it.

Charley’s psychiatrist friend had believed that Charley had got the whims of third level as waking dream wish fulfilment. He had been only day-dreaming. Side by side he revealed that the third level was still there. In reality Charley upset from his dull life and wanted to escape.

Charley knew that there were only two levels at Grand Station. In his fantasy he visited the Third Level as well. There he felt a strange mystery of 1894. Therefore, he consulted a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist thought that Charley had been day-dreaming. Side by side he revealed that the third level was still there. In reality Charley got upset with his dull life. It made him rush back from the third level.

The modern consumerist world is full of fear, insecurities, stress and wars because there is no safety for life. The modern innovations and competitions have human being put in a vicious circle and there is no escape from it. The present world has became a rat race and everybody is after power, money, fame and success. He has turned selfish, stressed, tensed and troubled.So his mind and life have become unsafe and insecure. In order to combat them, he starts day dreaming and adopts an escapist theory like Charley.
Charley is the product of the modern consumerist world. He starts imagining that he has gone in the Third Level of Grand Central Station, New York. There he finds everything old of 1894. He wants to go to Galesburg through the Third Level where people are free from all worries. It is a romantic world. He imagines that his grandfather came from a village Galesburg. He finds proof of his experience and realities that from Grand Central Station, trains go to Galesburg as well. He thinks that this has been the point where meets the present, past and future. Though it is imagination to combat the stress of the modern consumerist world. We can adopt different hobbies and busy schedules to combat the painful realities of the modern world.

Grand Central Station of New York has two levels namely New Haven and Hurtford. There does not exist any Third Level. It is only the imaginary discovery of the narrator and his psychiatrist, Sam who calls it a waking dream— wish fulfilment. One night he took the subway from Grand Central Station which was faster than the bus.

On reaching there, he went down the steps to the First Level. Then he walked down another flight of stairs to reach the second level. He got into an arched doorway and was lost in a wrong corridor. He kept in walking along the corridor which went turning left and slanting downwards. At its end, he went down short flight of stairs. Then he came out. He found himself on the third level. For a moment, he thought he had again come back to the second level. There he got surprised to see everything different from old fashioned. It made him believe that he was actually standing at the Third Level.

Sam was a psychiatrist. He was also a friend of Charley. When Charley fantasied about the Third Level at Grand Central Station, he visited Sam for consultation. Sam declared it merely a ‘temporary refuge’ from his tension. He called it a waking-dream-wish-fulfilment. But slowly he himself got trapped in this imaginary world. He talked to many psychic patients daily, who told him about their woes and worries. It had made Sam's life a burdened one. He also started trying to find sojourn. He wanted to escape from the life which had become woeful after listening to the afflictions of the patients suffering from mental diseases.

Unconsciously, he also felt like breaking all the barriers of the realities of life and moved freely in the world of fantasy. He wanted to imagine himself in the world, where there are no repressed fears and conflicts embedded in the minds of the people. He first did not believe in the whim of the Third Level, but deep in his heart, he wanted to believe in this fantasy. He knew that Charley was not right, but he wished Charley to be right and then slowly he started finding the reality in a whim and got trapped.

There does not exist any Third Level at the Grand Central Station, New York. It is Charley’s own imagination and fantasy that he is involved in. In reality it is his journey into the past and the Third Level might have existed a century ago.

A man was sitting there in the booth. He wore a green eye-shade and a long black sleeve protectors. He saw a man glancing at his watch. He wore a derby hat, a black four button suit with small lapels. He had a big black handlebar mustaches. Other people had worn dresses like eighteen ninetees. They had beards, side burns and fancy mustaches. A woman was wearing a dress with leg of mutton sleeves and high buttoned shoes. He also saw a news-boy having. The world’ and the name was published on June 11,1894.

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 modem 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-fulfilment. 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. Hence it can be well ascertained that the Third-Level is a medium of escape for Charley. It is only his escapist fantasy.

The psychiatrist of Charley called him having a waking-dream-wish-fulfilment. Since the Third Level was all his fantasy, his wife Louisa too asked him not to look for the Third Level anymore. The narrator took to stamp collecting. One day while looking through his worthy collection, Charley noticed a “first day cover” which he believed not to have seen before. This cover was addressed to his grandfather and mailed to him at his home in Galesburg. It was on July 18, 1894. Definitely his grandfather must have put it in his collection and the same must be lying there since long. Since it was a “first day cover”, consequently, it was not opened.
There was a blank paper in it. By chance Charley opened it. On opening it was found that it had a letter from Sam. He had reached Galesburg and was living very happily. He had found the place very charming, peaceful and serene. It was also written in the letter that Charley should come to Galesburg and look for the Third Level. In other words, the letter appeared to be Charley's imagination like his escape into the Third Level. The psychiatrist too had warned him that his stamp collection was a mode of escaping into the past.

The Grand Central Station of New York has two levels, i.e.New Heaven and Hart-Ford. The narrator had been there so many times and he attained a new experience at every time. He would bump into corridors and new staircases. Very often he got the chances of losing his way and thought that he was on the Third Level.

Once while on the station of Second Level, he got into a tunnel. The sub urban trains left from there. There Charley ducked into an arched doorway leading for the subway. There he was got lost many a times. At another time he got into a tunnel of a mile length and came up in the lobby of a hotel. So he started thinking that the Grand Central was ever pushing up new corridors and new staircases like the roots of a tree. The new corridors and tunnels were trying to reach Times Squares and Central Park. But he lost his way and reached the Third Level. The strangest thing was the corridor that had led into the past.

Galesburg was a peaceful city, specially in 1894. According to Charley, it is wonderful town even in the present world. His grandfather lived there and Charley also lived there, when he was a school going kid. The city of Galesburg had big frame houses. There were huge lawns in the city. The city had large trees across the roads, and their branches met overhead to form a kind of roof over the roads. It was nice to be there during summers. The evenings of the summer were long and people enjoyed sitting in their lawns. People used palm-leaf fans. Fireflies used to fly around and all this made the city of Galesburg a beautiful and peaceful city to live in.

Sam and Charley had seen the rushing life of the New York city. A city which never stops or sleeps, not even for a while. The pace of the life had made the lives of the people stressful, so they wanted to be in the city of Galesburg for the sake of peace and tranquility.

Sam had gone to the Third Level of Grand Central Station from where, he arrived in Galesburg of 1894, an imaginary refuge from rushing lives of the modern world. In 1894, Galesburg was a peaceful city. It had forgotten the First World War, which was twenty years back and no chances of Second World War for another over forty years. It was a city of huge frame houses with wonderful lawns and big trees forming a sort of umbrella on the roads.

People had very leisurely life style and there were no competitions among them. They liked sitting in their lawns and enjoyirig together in each other's company. So every thing was well placed and well settled with complete mental peace. They had no tensions, stresses or embedded fears in their minds and thus no mental ailments. Sam, being a psychiatrist, would not find any patient there, that is why it was said that he certainly can't go back to his old business in Galesburg of 1894.