Grand Central Station is the primary setting of “The Third Level” and symbolizes the characters’ desire to escape modern society. It is a somewhat complex symbol in that, throughout the story, it represents both the cold complexity of modern life and the warm simplicity of the past. In one sense, most of Grand Central Station is a complicated building that people must navigate throughout the course of their hectic daily lives. Charley even likens the station to an enormous tree, whose roots are constantly expanding beneath New York City without anyone even knowing its full sprawl. In this way, most of Grand Central Station represents the inescapable and isolating labyrinth of modern life.
However, this representation of Grand Central Station is inverted with the introduction of the third level, a part of Grand Central Station that is the complete opposite of the rest of the building. While the rest of the station is described primarily in terms of its complexity, the third level, set in 1894, is defined by specific details such as gaslights and the old-fashioned clothes worn by the people in this part of the station—all things that give the third level a warmer and more lifelike atmosphere. This atmosphere makes sense, given that the third level is a true escape for the characters; it is not a complicated place, as it requires one to merely buy a ticket to return to the past. Thus, in contrast to the rest of Grand Central Station, which represents modern life, the third level is a genuine escape, as represented by its setting in the ostensibly kinder and simpler past.
Grand Central Station Quotes in The Third Level
I told him about the third level at Grand Central Station, and he said it was a waking-dream wish fulfillment. He said I was unhappy. That made my wife kind of mad, but he explained that he meant the modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and all the rest of it, and that I just want to escape. Well, hell, who doesn’t? Everyone I know wants to escape, but they don’t wander down into any third level at Grand Central Station.
Sometimes I think Grand Central is growing like a tree, pushing out new corridors and staircases like roots. There’s probably a long tunnel that nobody knows about feeling its way under the city right now, on its way to Time Square, and maybe another to Central Park. And maybe—because for so many people through the years Grand Central has been an exit, a way of escape—maybe that’s how the tunnel I got into…
Grand Central Station Symbol Timeline in The Third Level
