2. ‘The Third Level’ explores an …

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.