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
Ye’s interrogation continues in transcript form. Ye explains that after the Adventists monopolized communication with the Trisolarans, she tried to build a Third Red Coast Base. But four years ago, all communication with the Trisolarans stopped. Ye, who does not identify as either a hateful Adventist or a religious Redemptionist, reflects: “I started the fire, but I couldn’t control how it burnt.”
In this important quote, Ye gives voice to the novel’s thematic preoccupation with the human desire for legacy. Though Ye knew her action would change the world, she had “control” only over the initial moment—the fallout was out of her hands entirely. And just as real-life experience never neatly follows the theory that attempts to explain it, real-life legacies rarely correspond to the legacies people dream of.
Themes
Ye also explains that she cannot destroy Evans’s ship because it would mean losing the Trisolaran messages inside of it. This would be devastating for the Redemptionists, because those messages were a religious text. Destroying the ship would also pose a strategic problem for any forces hoping to combat the alien invaders. The interrogator notices that Ye also calls the Trisolarans “Lord.”
Though Ye claims not to affiliate herself with either faction in the ETO, she is clearly much more on the side of the Redemptionists (specifically because she seems to view the Trisolarans in a religious light). This alliance helps to explain why she was so quick to execute Pan Han.
Themes
Before the questioning ends, Ye tells the interrogator that the Trisolarans sent two protons to earth at the speed of light. When the interrogator is confused by the purpose of these protons, Ye explains that the protons have effectively “locked” human science; no matter how much they try, humans will not be able to advance technologically in the 450 years before Trisolarans arrive. Though Ye does not understand how this could be possible, she reflects that to the Trisolarans, “we’re probably not even primitive savages. We might be mere bugs.”
These mysterious protons were probably responsible for the confusing lab results that ultimately drove Yang Dong to her death. Indirectly, then, Ye is responsible for her daughter’s death—in much the same way that her mother was responsible for her father’s. In addition to demonstrating yet another cycle of trauma, this passage also introduces the concept of human beings as “bugs,” a motif that will recur in the last chapters of the novel.
Themes
Having heard the interrogation, Wang Miao and Ding Yi debate whether or not they believe what Ye has said. Wang is confused about how two protons could have any meaningful effect, but Ding explains that a giant two-dimensional structure can be contained in a very small three-dimensional structure. Beyond that, Ding explains that there are many more “micro-dimensions” that could be manipulated, so vast amounts of energy and information could indeed be stored in a single proton. As Wang begins to fret, Ding comforts him, saying, “Just do the best within your responsibility. Let’s go drinking and then go back to sleep like good bugs.”
As it had been with Shi Qiang and Sha Ruishan, enjoying a night drinking with friends becomes a way to cope with the existential crisis Wang is facing. This passage is important for how it juxtaposes highly technical language with the simpler, more joyful language of quotidian experience. In other words, in order to understand the most complex ideas, there must be time for plain old rest and socialization.
Themes
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