Chapter 1 The Third Level Solutions
Question - 11 : - How does the narrator describe the first two levels of the Grand Central?
Answer - 11 : -
The narrator went down the steps of the Grand Central from Vanderbilt Avenue to the first level. From there one can take trains like the twentieth century. Then he walked down another flight to the second level. From there the suburban trains leave for various destinations.
Question - 12 : - The narrator got lost once when he ducked into an arched doorway heading for the subway. Where did he come out?
Answer - 12 : -
The narrator says that he has been in and out of Grand Central hundreds of times. He always bumps into new doorways, stairs and corridors. Once he got into a one-mile-long tunnel and came out in the Roosevelt Hotel lobby. Another time he came up in an office building on Forty-sixth street, three blocks away.
Question - 13 : - What does the narrator think of Grand Central? What does it symbolize?
Answer - 13 : -
The narrator thinks that Grand Central is growing like a tree. It pushes out new corridors and staircases like roots. There are long tunnels under the city on their ways to Times Square and to Central Park.
The Grand Central symbolizes the labyrinth that this world is with its intricate and tangled pathways. It has always been an exit, a way to escape.
Question - 14 : - What strange things did the narrator see when he reached the third level of Grand Central?
Answer - 14 : -
Charley noticed a difference in the way things looked at the third level of the Grand Central Station. It was smaller, with fewer ticket counters and had an old look of the 1890s with wooden booths, dim open-flame gaslights, brass spittoons and an old-style locomotive with a funnel shaped stack. Even the people’s attire was old fashioned and men had funny handle-bar mustaches and sideburns. The whole setting was in contrast to the modern times.
Question - 15 : - How did the man on the third level appear to the narrator?
Answer - 15 : -
The narrator saw a man pulling a gold watch from his vest pocket. He snapped open the cover, glanced at his watch and frowned. He wore a derby hat, a black four-button suit with tiny lapels and had a big, black handlebar mustache.
Question - 16 : - What did the narrator do to make sure that he was actually at the third level of Grand Central?
Answer - 16 : -
The narrator walked over to a news boy. He glanced at the stack of newspapers. It was The World and The World had not been published for years. The lead story was about President Cleveland. Later on, he confirmed from the public library files that the newspaper was dated 11th June 1894.
Question - 17 : - Why did the narrator turn towards the ticket windows? Why did he run back from there?
Answer - 17 : -
The narrator turned towards the ticket window to buy tickets to go to Galesburg, Illinois, in the year of 1894. When Charley produced money to pay for the two tickets, the clerk stared at him as the currency did not match with the currency of that time. He accused him of trying to cheat him and threatened to hand him over to the police. The narrator turned away thinking that there was nothing nice about jail even in 1894.
Question - 18 : - How does the narrator describe Galesburg, Illinois?
Answer - 18 : -
The narrator states that Galesburg, Illinois, is a wonderful town with big old frame houses, huge lawns and big trees. Summer evenings were twice as long. People sat out on their lawns, the men smoking cigar and talking quietly, the women waving palm-leaf fans. It means the people had lived in peace and harmony and had a lot of leisure time.
Question - 19 : - What did the narrator do the next day?
Answer - 19 : -
The narrator withdrew his entire money from the bank. He bought old-style currency to buy two tickets to Galesburg. He got less than two hundred old-style bills for his three hundred dollars. He consoled himself for having got less money by the fact that life in 1894 Galesburg was quite cheaper as compared to the modern life.
Question - 20 : - How does the narrator’s psychiatrist friend react to the narrator’s statement that the third level exists?
Answer - 20 : -
The narrator’s psychiatrist friend, Sam Weiner, says it is ‘a waking-dream-wish fulfilment’. He says that the narrator is unhappy and the modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war and worry. So, he wants to escape and has created an imaginary third level.