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.

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.

The Third Level by Jack Finney

Third Level by Jack Finney is about the harsh realities of war. War has irreversible consequences thus leaving people in a state of insecurity. It is also about modern day problems and how common man tends to escape reality by various means. In this story, a man named Charley hallucinates and reaches the third level of the Grand Central Station which only has two levels.

Douglas said :“ The instructor was finished, but I was not finished.” 

The instructor had trained Dougles piece by piece in every exercise pertaining to swimming but Douglas was not satisfied. He was under the fear that the terror of water would get hold on him again while swimming. So the author was in a mood to have more attempts or excercise for perfection.

Douglas was determined to get over his fear of water. He engaged a professional instructor who understood the intensity of his fear and decided to not just teach him how to swim but 'build' a swimmer out of him slowly and steadily.

Douglas did decide to engage an instructor because he wanted to overcome from the fear of water that set in his heart or mind from his two bad experience of life .

He got training from instructor for four months that was much helpful for him to develop his fishing skill . And in last when his training was complete , he was really overcome from his fear and now he swim in water easily .

Douglas did decide to engage an instructor because he wanted to overcome from the fear of water that set in his heart or mind from his two bad experience of life . He got training from instructor for four months that was much helpful for him to develop his fishing skill .

Dreams are the fictions while reality is the fact of life that one has to deal with. Dreams are detached from the harsh realities of life. “Lost Spring” has a threatening annotation on the political system of our country, a system which mug thousands of life through unwelcoming poverty. The character of the stories like Mukesh and Saheb had their imaginings which were never fulfilled because they were underprivileged. The author gives an outline of how the corrupted political organization of our society and the country as a whole snatches away innocent dreams. The condition of the group of poor, who has always been pestered by the rich group for years, still remains so. Slavery has withdrawn their power to grip against the group which harasses them. They never get a life of their dream. The dearths of wealth holds them back from breaking their fetters of repression and start something new. Mukesh wanted to work as a car mechanic and Saheb had dreams of going to school. But all these were futile dreams as they were forced to work in some places like tea stall and glass factory, which were starkly in opposition to their wish. Even if someone from the group tried to rise up, like them, the society which was dominated by the rich class, the police, the middleman, the sahukars and last but in no condition the least are the politicians, were there to harass them .The rich did not endure any kind of audacity to stand up against their authority. The luxuries of life, the justice, fulfillment of dreams are the names of those dishes which are offered only in the plates of the people having the wallop. Those are not meant for the downtrodden. So cherishing ones dream was a far sited thing.

There is no denying the fact that promises made to the poor children are rarely kept. In our modern democratic India, people living in slum colonies, resettlement areas and jhuggi and jhopary colonies hardly have an access to civic amenities and the education. They are meant for casting their votes or show attendance in the political rallies. Their grieves are hardly adhered to by the bureaucrats. The writer has given two current examples of the residents of Seemapuri and Firozabad.

In Seemapuri one can see more than 10,000 rag-pickers who live in strucutres of mud, with roofs of tin and tarpaulin. They are devoid of sewage, drainage or running water. They live without an identity except a ration card for voting and buying grain. They remain barefoot and garbage to them is gold. The writer asks Saheb, a rag-picker for school. The boy replies that there is none in his neighbourhood. He further says if they build it, he will go. But this is never done.

In the same way about 20,000 children work in bangle factories and work in glass furnaces with high temperature. They live in dingy cells and stingy lanes choked with garbage. They pass their lives in grinding poverty and fail to get proper food. Thus the poor have no dreams and no initiatives. They are the safest targets of exploitations.

The bangle-makers of Firozabad are bom in poverty, live in poverty and die in poverty. For generations these people have been engaged in this trade—working around hot furnaces with high temperature, welding and soldering glass to make bangles. In spite of hard labour throughout the day, the return is meagre. Some of them have to sleep with empty, aching stomachs. Others do not have enough to eat. Whatever they do get is not delicious or nourishing.
The stinking lanes of their shanty town are choked with garbage. Their hovels have crumbling walls, wobbly doors and no windows. These are overcrowded with humans and animals.
Poverty and hunger, social customs and traditions, stigma of caste and the intrigues of powerful lobby that thrives on their labour combine to keep them poor, uneducated and hungry. The moneylenders, the middlemen, the policemen, the keepers of law, the bureaucrats and the politicians—all are ranged against them. Children are engaged in illegal and hazardous work. Years of mind-numbing toil have killed all initiative and ability to dream. They are unable to organise themselves into cooperative due to lack of a leader and fear of ill-treatment at the hands of the police. They seem to carry the burden that they can’t put down. They can talk but not act to improve their lot.

Mukesh belongs to a family of bangle makers in Firozabad. generations of his family have been engaged in this trade but still they live in conditions of abject poverty. These people think it a God given lineage. But Mukesh wants to be his own master. To Mukesh the life of bangle maker is a worse than that of a Slave. He wants to become a Motor Mechanic. He wants to break away from the family tradition.

The author has used the device of irony in order to highlight the satire on the conceit of those who are in power. An irony is a technical device used by the authors to highten the fact that provides the result which is quite opposite in nature. The Maharaja of Pratibandapuram tries his utmost best to falsify the prediction of the astrologers, since his state astrologer has foretold the Maharaja's death by a tiger. He has been further bewared to be more careful from the hundredth tiger.

Consequently, the king banned the hunting of all the tigers on his state. Within a span of ten years, the king was able to kill seventy tigers. He became restless to kill the rest since he was to realise his ambition of killing the hundred tigers. Even he married a royal daughter whose father's state had a large tiger population. Thus, he could kill only ninety-nine tigers and his father-in-law's state too became extinct with tigers. Here the king thought himself safe only after killing the hundredth tiger. His dewan managed it and the Maharaja aimed at the tiger but it fainted with the bullet. It survived but later on it was killed by the guards.

The irony lies in the point that the tiger which caused the death of the Tiger King, was a wooden tiger. One of its tiny slivers pierced into the right hand of the king. Infection flared and a suppurating sore all over the arm. The king was operated and the operation was successful but the doctors declared, “The Maharaja is dead.” Thus the hundredth tiger of wood took its revenge upon the Tiger King.

In the chapter 'Lost Spring' by Anees Jung, the author talks about two different worlds in Firozabad. These are :

1. The families of the bangle makers

2. The endless loop of the sahukars, the  middlemen, the policemen, the  keepers of law, the bureaucrats  and the politicians.

The following lines from the chapter provide the answer :

'Listening to them,  I see two distinct  worlds — one  of the family,  caught in  a web of  poverty,  burdened by the stigma of caste in which  they are born; the other a vicious  circle of the sahukars, the  middlemen, the policemen, the  keepers of law, the bureaucrats  and the politicians.'

• The people in the village live a very simple life. They are satisfied with their living style and necessities for living.
• They have harmony and understanding with each other. They are very close to nature.
• The people of the village share their happiness and grieves with each other. They eat fresh fruit, vegetables, and breath clean air.
• They enjoy the true meaning of life.

The young trees are described as 'sprinting' which means rushing past the poet as she is travelling in a very fast-moving car. While travelling in a speeding vehicle, the objects outside appear to be rushing past us in the opposite direction.

The rattrap seller was a poor vagabond, wearing shabby ragged clothes. He sold rattraps to earn a very meager livelihood. At times he resorted to petty thievery. He considered the entire world as a big rattrap and all the men and women as rats vulnerable to be trapped to various types of baits. He himself got trapped in this rattrap when he stole thirty kronor of the old crofter.

He was always in search of securing some money, by hook or crook. As a result he got into trouble the second time when the Ironmaster mistook him for an old companion and he did not correct him. However, there was some goodness left in him that was brought to surface by kind Edla, the Ironmaster’s elder daughter. At the end he transformed himself and returned the stolen money to the crofter through Edla.

(a) The tigers are called Aunt Jennifers tiger as they are knitted by her. With their chivalrous, ferocious, bright and carefree attitude, she creates an alternate world for herself.

(b) Aunt Jennifers tigers are described as ferocious, fearless, always harmful, sleek and chivalric.

(c) The tigers are depicted as brave, strong, confident and happy. They are fearless beings and the presence of men does not scare them at all. Contrarily, Aunt Jennifer is burdened by a life which, most probably, others chose for her.

(d) The word “chivalric” refers to the confidence of the tigers about their power and brevity in their actions.

Answers:
(а)The name of the poem is Keeping Quiet. The poet is Pablo Neruda.
(b)Green wars, wars with poisonous gases and wars with the fire are the different kinds of wars.
(c) It will be a victory where no survivors will be left to celebrate it. Such a victory will be meaningless.
(d) They should put on clean clothes and walk with their brothers under the trees leisurely doing nothing.