Previous
Pages 150-169
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Dark Forest, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Communication, Cooperation, and Fear
Survival vs. Morality
Strategy, Dishonesty, and Deception
Love
Hope vs. Despair
Summary
Analysis
Tyler is blindfolded as he’s taken to a cave in Afghanistan. When he arrives, he meets with a man who is one of the greatest enemies of the United States. To Tyler, the man seems to have the “kindliest face in the world.” He gives the man a gift of novels by Isaac Asimov and says that people have claimed that the man named his organization after those novels. Tyler then asks the man to ensure that his organization will remain intact for four centuries until the Trisolarans arrive. Ultimately, Tyler wants the spirit of the man’s organization to animate the space force. Tyler wants that to happen because the man’s organization is one of the only armed forces that “uses lives as weapons.”
Tyler is a former U.S. Secretary of Defense. The man who he visits seems to be based on Osama Bin Laden, the founder of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, which was responsible for the September 11th attacks. Al-Qaeda reportedly took its name from Isaac Asimov’s novel Foundation. Al-Qaeda has also made frequent use of suicide attacks. In essence, Tyler wants to find a way for the people who fly the spacecraft in the battle against the Trisolarans to be as committed to the cause of human survival as al-Qaeda militants are to their cause.
Active
Themes
Tyler explains that in the Doomsday Battle, humans will need fighters who have that spirit and are willing to give their lives for the cause. He assures the man that, through the Wallfacer Project, he’ll supply the man’s organization with anything it needs. The man responds by saying that one of the organization’s most powerful attributes is hatred. Because the Trisolarans will wipe out the West, which the man and the organization hate, the man and his organization cannot hate the Trisolarans. Tyler is disappointed that he hasn’t found what he was looking for.
Considering that Tyler is a former U.S. Secretary of Defense, his commitment to supplying what appears to be a terrorist organization with anything the organization needs represents an almost impossible-to-imagine shift in U.S. priorities. In essence, the novel suggests that the impending annihilation of humanity could reconfigure relationships among groups on Earth in ways that would have once been unthinkable.
Active
Themes
At the next Wallfacer Hearing, Tyler says that he wants his “mosquito swarm” to be able to toggle between pilot mode and drone mode so that he will be able to remotely assume control of the fleet. He then recommends that the PDC limit its attacks on the ETO. If the ETO is wiped out entirely, Tyler says, then the UN will have no way to gather information about the Trisolarans. Several people argue with him, and the meeting ends before the arguments are resolved.
Active
Themes
Luo Ji and Zhuang Yan go to the Louvre. As they walk through the museum, Zhuang Yan says she doesn’t like modern art or art that is from antiquity. Instead, her favorite art comes from the Renaissance because those painters were the first to recognize the beauty of humans. Luo Ji and Zhuang Yan talk more about the Trisolarans. As they look at the mysterious smile of the Mona Lisa, Zhuang Yan wonders if it might be possible for humans to develop a form of communication based on facial expressions that would be indecipherable to sophons and the Trisolarans. Luo Ji and Zhuang Yan then take turns trying to decipher each other’s expressions. As they do, Luo Ji feels himself falling more deeply in love with Zhuang Yan.
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General Fitzroy talks with Dr. Ringier in the control room of the Hubble II telescope. General Fitzroy urges Dr. Ringier to turn the telescope toward the Trisolarans’ planet. Dr. Ringier says that it won’t make a difference as the telescope won’t be able to see the planet with any clarity. General Fitzroy insists, and ultimately Dr. Ringier shifts the Hubble II and takes a series of images of the stars near the Trisolarans’ planet. The images show three barely discernible stars.
Active
Themes
Dr. Ringier shows the images to General Fitzroy, and General Fitzroy says he guesses it’s true that they really can’t see far enough to see the Trisolarans. But then General Fitzroy notices something on the image that looks like the bristles of a brush. At first, Dr. Ringier thinks perhaps the telescope’s lens has been damaged. He then looks more closely and begins running calculations. Eventually, he explains to Dr. Ringier what they have discovered. The “bristles” are disturbances of interstellar dust near the stars. It seems that bodies moving at high speeds crossed that dust and left wakes, which are the bristles. In essence, Dr. Ringier explains, they’ve just discovered proof that the Trisolarans’ fleet is in fact headed to Earth. Everyone in the control room is devastated, and people begin to cry.
Active
Themes
