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
Most of the ETO was made up of intellectuals; while most people were hesitant to betray their families and loved ones, some elites hated the human race enough to wish for its complete destruction. The ETO quickly grew in power and scope: after all, “human civilization had finally given birth to a strong force of alienation,” and the most alienated people were also among the most powerful and influential. Still, governments mostly thought the ETO was silly and extreme, and so it was allowed to grow relatively unchecked.
Here, the thematic question of theory versus lived experience takes on new meaning: while people who focus on daily life find redeeming qualities in humanity, theorists and intellectuals only find reality messy and disappointing. The most important idea, here, is this play on the word “alienation.” People have become so isolated from each other that connection with actual extraterrestrials feels more attainable than connection with other human beings.
Themes
Within the group, there were two main factions: Adventists and Redemptionists. The Adventists hated humanity so thoroughly (due to wealth inequality, environmental destruction, and war, among other things) that they wanted humanity destroyed; as Evans put it, “We don’t know what extraterrestrial civilization is like, but we know humanity.” The Redemptionists had developed a religion around Trisolaris, in which the Trisolarans were a spiritual Lord that actually existed. The Redemptionists believed that they should spread Trisolaran culture to the larger population, and they also believed that solving the seemingly impossible three-body problem was a religious act.
At last, the two warring sectors of the ETO come into focus. Adventists have no investment in (or even any particular beliefs about) what the Trisolarans are like; their agenda is based solely on a hatred of humanity. Redemptionists, however, spend a lot of time imagining the Trisolarans; since the Adventists have monopolized much of the aliens’ communication, the Redemptionists are able to create a sort of mythos around the extraterrestrials. Understanding that the three-body problem is a religious question also clarifies Shen’s intent devotion to her husband.
Themes
The Three Body game was the main way in which the Redemptionist faction of the ETO spread knowledge of the Trisolarans to earth. Using recognizably human figures and important historical events, the game designers hoped to make Trisolaris more palatable to humans who were just learning of it. Once a player advanced far enough in the game, they would be contacted and—if their sympathies aligned with the ETO—they would be recruited.
The way that the video game plays with history complicates the standard sense that time moves in one linear direction. But the game also serves to affirm the perceptual challenges of the shooter and the farmer theory. Humans can only understand another world through their experience, and this need to center humanity blinds people to the reality of the universe around them.
Themes
The Adventists and the Redemptionists were always in intense conflict, as the Redemptionists believed that humans and Trisolarans should coexist. Moreover, over time, a third faction emerged: the Survivors. With knowledge of the coming war, the Survivors wanted only to outlast the aliens, in whatever way possible. These three warring factions, which had splintered only from a few initial messages, proved the “contact as symbol” theory—rather than uniting people, belief in extraterrestrials would only further divide them.
Though humans and Trisolarans are ostensibly at odds, both are ultimately motivated—above all else—by a desire to survive. But rather than working together to accomplish this survival, humans (and their alien counterparts) view survival as a zero-sum game; their existence must always come at the expense of someone else’s.
Themes
Get the entire The Three-Body Problem LitChart as a printable PDF.
