Comment on the appropriateness of the …

The chapter Third Level deals with the theme of insecurity, fear, and war. The narrator, Charlie seems also to be stressed. His longing for some idyllic and peaceful place like Galesburg makes him stray to a corridor at Grand Central Station that takes him into the past, year 1894.

The people, their attire, ambience, the platform, everything on the platform, locomotive, currency being used, the newspapers, magazines, etc., is old style. Only Charlie is an exception. This hallucination of Charlie comes to an abrupt end when he has to flee from there in hurry to save himself from being caught by the then cops.

Later on, when he shares this experience with his psychiatrist friend, Sam, he ascribed this phenomenon to the stress Charlie was facing and his hobby of philately through which he tried to escape into an ideal world.

Sam, his psychiatrist friend also strays to the third level. Charlie finds a first day cover in the collection of his grandfather’s stamp collection. Sam had somehow found the third level. He had gone there and started a new business of hay, feed and grain.

Since the chapter deals with the third level at the Grand Central Station, New York, the title ‘Third Level’ is perfect for the story.