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, imagining the Trisolarans as humanoid, begins to read their message to Evans. The message explains that across Trisolaris there were hundreds of listening posts, each manned by a single individual. The listeners were supposed to keep an ear out for any messages from other sentient life in the universe. The listeners were lonely; though the listening booths kept them safe from many of the dangers of Chaotic Eras, the listeners could not leave during Stable Eras, either, so they were denied the basic pleasures of life.
The listeners’ experience shows that isolation is not solely a human experience; indeed, though many of the novel’s characters have lamented their sense of loneliness, they are actually far more connected than some of their alien counterparts. Moreover, this section reveals another parallel between life on earth and life on Trisolaris: though chaos is painful (and Chaotic Eras are scary), this messiness is a necessary counterbalance to the pleasures of real life.
Themes
One night, during a Chaotic Era, the listener at Post 1379 was contemplating the incredible loneliness of the universe. All of a sudden, he saw an unusual waveform come through on his monitor. Whereas most of the waves were meaningless, the deciphering computer showed that this wave had been sent by intelligent life. Shaking with excitement, the listener opened Ye’s message and learned, for the first time, of the existence of earth.
The fact that the listener is never given a name shows again how isolated (and seemingly insignificant) this individual is—or would be, were it not for this monumental moment of contact with earth.
Themes
At first, the listener was touched to imagine the beautiful oceans and forests of earth. But soon, his excitement turned to dread—not only would he never get to experience this beauty, but realistically, Trisolarans would conquer and alter any other planet they could find. Plus, if the listener reported this message, listening posts would become obsolete and he would be out of a job. And without a job or a mate, he would be forcibly dehydrated and burned.
Unlike on earth, where things like landscape photography and violin music are valued, Trisolarans are so focused on their own survival that they are entirely utilitarian. Without purpose, therefore, the listener will be literally deemed unworthy of life.
Themes
On the other hand, the Trisolaran government probably could not identify where in the universe the transmission had come from, because even if they could ascertain the direction of the signal, they could not know how far away it was. Therefore, if the listener replied by warning the citizens of earth not to respond, he could potentially save earth from Trisolaran invasion, thus shaping the course of both earth history and Trisolaran history. In other words, the listener “had a singular chance to make his own humble life glow.”
In this passage, more than any other place in the novel, readers are confronted with an individual’s desire to leave behind some trace of himself. For the society of Trisolaris as a whole, the goal is simply biological survival—but for at least this Trisolaran individual, living on in someone’s memory is more important than living on in flesh and blood.
Themes
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The listener typed out a short message—“Do not answer! Do not answer!! Do not answer!!!” Knowing that “the fate of Trisolaran civilization was now tied to [his] slender fingers,” the listener pressed the transmit button.
Interestingly, this language parallels exactly the language used to describe Ye as she contacts the Trisolarans. In both cases, the emphasis on “slender fingers” shows how even a relatively weak individual can create massive historical change.
Themes
The princeps (leader) of Trisolaris did not live in a palace exactly like the one in Three Body, but he was separated from the elements (possibly by thick walls or by going underground). When he learned what the listener had done, the leader felt nothing—Trisolaran society viewed most emotions as a form of weakness. All of the many civilizations and Chaotic Eras had taught the Trisolarans that only “calmness and numbness” were useful in the fight for survival.
Human characters like Wang Miao have struggled for the entire novel to balance rational thought with emotional experience. But on Trisolaris, only the former is valued; emotional stability is necessary in a society where natural stability (namely, the sun rising and falling every day) is not guaranteed.
Themes
The princeps called the listener to his palace, and the two began to debate whether earth’s “warlike” society was more or less valuable than its Trisolaran counterpart. The listener argued that in the fight for survival, Trisolarans had made their lives meaningless—they had “no literature, no art, no pursuit of beauty and enjoyment.” The princeps, meanwhile, countered that while Trisolaris had once had democratic societies filled with arts and culture, such societies were the least likely to survive.
Again, the utilitarian nature of Trisolaris emerges here in contrast to the more multifaceted—but less practical—life on earth. To the listener, art is a particularly important product of a life in which interiority and feeling are valued; science, on the other hand, is more about increasing a society’s ability to protect itself.
Themes
While the princeps believed that, should the Trisolarans make it to the stability of earth, they too could create art, the listener was not so sure; he believed that “the metallic Trisolaran spirit has infiltrated each of our cells and solidified.” At this, the princeps dismissed the listener, telling him that he would not be dehydrated and burned. Instead, his punishment would be knowing that his attempt to save earth had failed forever.
In a heartbreaking parallel, this language neatly mirrors the language Ye uses to describe her own experience with trauma, in which the painful thoughts “dissolved into her blood, where they would stay with her for the rest of her life.” In both cases, an experience of trauma—whether it is familial or a natural disaster—literally changes the makeup of an individual’s body and brain, meaning that many of their actions (even seemingly unrelated ones) are actually some kind of trauma response.
Themes
The princeps summoned the consul in charge of the listening posts. He ordered that the consul and all of the 6,000 Trisolarans who worked for him be dehydrated and burned for allowing listener 1379 to commit such a grave crime. Then, the princeps ordered the Trisolaran fleet to prepare for flight—even though the fleet might not know exactly where to fly, Trisolaris was going to be destroyed by its three suns at any moment. It was time to “gamble.”
Though many of the details of the Three-Body game were different from the real Trisolaris, the princeps’s brutality is comparable to that of Zhou, Pope Gregory, and Qin Shi Huang. Also notable: in this moment of crisis, rational thought is not possible or useful, even for this most rational society. In other words, luck, risk, and mess are impossible to fully eliminate.
Themes
