Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Three-Body Problem, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Technology, Progress, and Destruction
Scientific Discovery and Political Division
Trauma and Cyclical Harm
Theory vs. Lived Experience
History and Legacy
Summary
Analysis
An interrogator asks Ye Wenjie a series of questions about some murders she is said to have committed. Ye confesses to the crimes, which happened on October 21, 1979; she explains that she was motivated to kill Commissar Lei and her husband Yang Weining upon realizing that Lei, too, had gotten the message from the Trisolarans.
Just as it did with the earlier report, the book again shifts form to mirror content. In this case, Ye is so removed from the emotional costs of her husband’s death that the novel similarly shifts to a passionless tone, moving from third-person narration to a cut-and-dried interrogator’s report.
Themes
Though Lei had read the aliens’ message—and had discovered Ye’s attempt to keep the message secret—he did not know that Ye had already replied to it. Lei told Ye that he wanted to protect his friend Yang and the child Ye was pregnant with, so he did not want to prosecute her. But Ye saw through this ruse—really, Lei just wanted to be the first person to discover extraterrestrial life.
Though Ye sees only a selfish desire for legacy behind Lei’s decision, readers should not immediately trust Ye’s perspective. Though Ye feels no such compassion for other people, it is possible that Lei really did care for his friend Yang and their unborn child.
Themes
Ye was determined to keep her secret safe. To do so, she decided to tamper with one of the wires for Radar Peak’s signal receiver. When the receiver stopped working, the base technician assumed incorrectly that it was an issue with the part of the wire hanging over Radar Peak. The base technician reported the error to his superiors. As Ye had predicted, Lei, wanting to prove himself a good comrade, volunteered to take a look at the part of the wire that dangled dangerously over the cliff.
Here, Ye ingeniously (and quite cruelly) makes use of communist political symbolism for her own ends. Knowing that Lei will want to humble himself in front of his employees, she forces him to put himself in a dangerous situation in order to save face.
Themes
Just before Lei could check the dangling wire for defects, Yang showed up and offered to help him. Yang and Lei put on their harnesses and, using the base’s rope, climbed over the edge of the cliff. Seeing no way to save Yang while killing Lei, Ye cut the rope, sending both men to their deaths. Ye tells the investigator that in the moment of the murders, she felt only calm, even when she saw the water beneath Radar Peak turn red with her husband’s blood.
The same rational, objective mind that allows Ye to succeed in the sciences also enables her to feel zero guilt or sadness at her husband’s death. But more importantly, for the first time, readers are faced with undeniable proof of Ye’s brutality. This violent action shows how trauma can be cyclical: because Ye has lost so much, she no longer feels guilt or compunction about causing others to feel similarly.
Themes
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