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
To get to the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ National Astronomical Center (where he can observe the cosmic background radiation), Wang drives up a steep mountain. As he approaches, he sees many parabolic antennae, and he thinks of the picture of Ye Wenjie and Yang Dong. When he finally gets to the center, Wang is greeted by Sha Ruishan, who is Ye Wenjie’s former student. Wang explains that he has come to “see the overall fluctuation in the cosmic microwave background.”
Though the National Astronomical Center has nothing to do with Radar Peak, the antennae at both places symbolically link them—and the sense of foreboding associated with the Radar Peak antenna is perhaps present here as well.
Themes
Sha laughs at this request—the cosmic background radiation changes so slowly (over millions and millions of years) that it would be impossible to observe any fluctuation in a single night. Still, to humor Wang, Sha agrees to help him in his task, and he pulls up the monitor for the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), an out-of-date probe. Sha explains that if the kind of fluctuation Wang is talking about were to actually happen, the flat green line on the monitor would turn red and start coming out in waves. Again, Sha tells Wang he thinks such a shift is impossible.
Shen Yufei has told Wang that the universe will “flicker” for him; since normally the cosmic background radiation is stable, any noticeable change would effectively amount to such a “flicker.” Sha Ruishan’s reaction suggests just how unlikely this would be. Implicitly, then, such a flicker would certainly signal some superhuman force at work.
Themes
Since Wang does not expect the fluctuation to start until one in the morning, he and Sha agree to get a drink. While they talk, Sha summarizes Ye Wenjie’s life—he recaps the loss of her father Ye Zhetai, her stint in the Greater Khingan Mountains, and then a strange time of her life when she seemed to disappear entirely. Eventually, in the 1990s, Ye Wenjie reemerged and began teaching physics at Tsinghua University. Only recently did people learn that Ye Wenjie actually spent those middle years at Red Coast Base.
In addition to filling Wang in on the part of Ye’s backstory that readers already know, this passage shows just how much Wang enjoys (and relies upon) socialization. As in this scene, he often fills in the gaps and learns information over late-night drinks with a new friend.
Themes
As one in the morning approaches, the two men make their way back to the observatory. Sure enough, the line on the COBE monitor has turned red and has become a waveform. Sha is shocked, and so he checks other, more up-to-date radiation probes, all of which show a similar shift. Wang begins to track the lengths between the peaks of the waves, and he realizes that the universe is giving him a message in Morse code. Using the Morse code chart Shen Yufei gave him, Wang comes to realize that the universe is continuing to give the countdown that he saw in the photographs.
Somehow, Shen Yufei understood exactly how and when this giant shift would happen in the universe; in fact, she was so sure of it that she was able to give Wang the necessary information on Morse code in advance. And sure enough, the dots and dashes of the background radiation waves correspond exactly to the numbers of the countdown behind Wang’s eyes.
Themes
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In a panic, Sha decides that Wang must get his hands on a pair of 3K glasses, which allow people to see the background radiation through their own eyes. Sha tells Wang that he cannot continue to accompany him on his quest, as it is too disturbing. Before Wang drives off to pick up the 3K glasses, Sha remarks that “strange things have been happening to scientists lately.” Ominously, Wang replies that “it’s my turn.”
Like some of the generals at the Battle Command Center, Wang is becoming aware that he is an individual at a historic, potentially world-altering crossroads. As Wang discovers, this is a lonely position; people like Sha would rather distance themselves than confront the massive, uncertain changes around them.
Themes
To get the 3K glasses, Wang drives to a nearby planetarium. When he arrives at the building, which has a transparent exterior, he marvels that the universe is “transparent; as long as you were sufficiently sharp-eyed, you could see as far as you liked. But the farther you looked, the more mysterious it became.” Wang enters the planetarium and picks up five pairs of the glasses from a staffer.
Like he did with the story of the shooter and the farmer and the painting of the Qingming Festival, Wang begins to question his own perceptions. Just as the planetarium is misleadingly transparent, Wang must come to terms with the fact that the more he begins to examine the reality of the universe, the less he understands it.
Themes
As his eyes adjust to the glasses, Wang considers that the radiation is the leftover energy from the Big Bang Theory, millions and millions of years ago. Quickly, Wang realizes that the universe is indeed flickering, reminding him of a beating heart. He is aware of a “strange, perverse, immense presence that could never be understood by human intellect.” In a state of panic, he takes the glasses off and tries to readjust to the world around him.
Wang’s suspicion of a superhuman force seems to be confirmed by what he sees through the 3K glasses. At the same time, however, the flickering causes him to think of a human heartbeat—the things that he cannot understand with “human intellect” he can therefore relate to on a more emotional or intuitive level, even if they frighten him.
Themes
A few hours later, Wang leaves the planetarium and dials Shen Yufei. When he asks her what happens at the end of the countdown, she tells him that she does not know. He wonders if before every global catastrophe (like World War II), one individual has experienced a countdown like this—and has felt his sense of powerlessness before impending doom. Wang finds himself in front of a church, but he cannot pay attention to the beautiful domed ceiling or the touching choir music because he can only picture the pulsing background radiation. Just as Wang begins to cry, policeman Shi Qiang appears, smoking a cigarette.
More clearly than ever before, Wang begins to consider his place in what seems sure to be a global disaster. His limited human agency is contrasted first with the mysterious countdown, and then with the spiritual power of a church—but rather than finding solace in the idea of a higher power, it only reminds Wang of the mysterious, pulsing, tangible evidence of how little he understands.
Themes
