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Chapter 1
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
Two years later, Ye Wenjie is working in the Greater Khingan Mountains, an isolated forest in Inner Mongolia. Ye Wenjie is helping cut down trees to make grain fields as part of the government’s Production and Construction Corps. As she sees the trees fall, she is haunted by memories of her father’s death. The scale of the deforestation makes the events of the Cultural Revolution feel small and unimportant. Ye reflects that this massive environmental destruction is a kind of “madness.”
One of the major goals of the Cultural Revolution was to increase China’s industrial production, which in practice often meant widespread deforestation and development. Ye’s rich imagery links the harm human beings are doing to their environment to the harm they are doing to each other—and more specifically, Ye’s experience of personal loss now shapes the way she sees everything, from the natural environment to the political actions around her.
Themes
Ye Wenjie is stopped in her thoughts by Bai Mulin, a reporter for the Corps newspaper. Mulin points to the rings on the trees, asking the workers to think about how much history they have just cut down. Most of the other workers do not care, but Bai recognizes a kindred spirit in Ye Wenjie; they share a sadness that this once-fertile region has become a barren desert. Bai tells Wenjie about an American book known as Silent Spring. The book is considered reactionary, but certain government officials (like Bai) have been allowed to read it. Bai explains that Silent Spring has inspired him to write to the government in protest of its environmental destruction. He then lends the book to Ye Wenjie, warning her to be careful with it.
Silent Spring, written by environmentalist Rachel Carson in 1962, focused on the negative effects of pesticide use (particularly as it impacted animals). The book was tremendously influential in the United States, which is probably one of the reasons it was considered so controversial in communist China. The fact that Bai Mulin trusts Ye with such an illicit item also seems to signal a degree of connection and understanding between the two characters.
Themes
As Ye Wenjie reads the book, which is about the damaging effects of pesticide use, she begins to believe that human beings are fundamentally evil. Eventually, she decides that humanity can never have a “moral awakening” of its own accord; instead, it must depend on some “outside force” to wake up to its own evil.
This passage marks a critical turning point in Ye’s thinking. After having been personally disillusioned by what happened to her father, Ye now loses faith in humanity entirely. But rather than driving her to religion or spiritual belief, Ye’s desire for an “outside force” will later push her in a more scientific (and more dangerous) direction.
Themes
After finishing the book, Ye returns it to Bai at his home near Radar Peak. Though Radar Peak is ostensibly a military base, it is actually much more mysterious; there is a giant antenna on the top of the mountain, and when the antenna is extended, animals panic and humans fall ill. Sometimes, even the weather itself changes. Radar Peak is also heavily guarded, and the people in charge have great power within the communist government.
Tellingly, the most important thing on Radar Peak is an antenna. Antennas are typically used for communication across long distances, and so the fact that this antenna is so heavily guarded suggests that some kind of top-secret communication is occurring here.
Themes
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Bai shows Ye the letter he plans to write to the Chinese leaders in Beijing. Ye thinks the letter is beautiful, so when she notices how much Bai’s hands are shaking, she agrees to copy it down for him. While she writes, Bai wonders how someone as highly educated as Ye—who trained as an astrophysicist—can just throw away her skills in a place like the Greater Khingan Mountains. Ye feels a moment of comfort with Bai, and it is the first time she has felt comfort since her father was killed. But then she leaves his house and is confronted again by the “steel glint” of the antenna on Radar Peak.
This passage juxtaposes two different forms of communication: the letter writing, which represents intimacy and comfort, and the “steel glint” of the antenna, which signals danger and the unknown. This juxtaposition perhaps reflects the reality that every time Ye starts to find real, human connection with someone, that connection is overshadowed by the more mysterious form of contact happening on Radar Peak.
Themes
Three weeks later, Ye is called in to meet with Director Zhang, who runs the Division Political Department of Inner Mongolia. Zhang shows Ye Bai’s letter to the government, and he accuses Ye of writing it herself; he then explains that since this letter is considered to go against the principles of the Cultural Revolution, Ye will be severely punished. Ye tries to clarify the situation, but she quickly realizes Bai has framed her—and that she is helpless to defend herself.
This betrayal is particularly devastating because Bai was the first person Ye had been able to trust since her mother betrayed her father. It is particularly interesting that Bai does not seem like a fundamentally evil man. Indeed, rather than vilifying Bai, the novel suggests that the pain he causes is another ripple effect of the Cultural Revolution: betrayal is necessary for survival.
Themes
Though Bai had not initially intended to frame Ye (only doing so when he realized he was going to face punishment), his actions will have tremendous import: historians would often write about the impact of this 1969 exchange. Still, Bai lived the rest of his life in relative normalcy, eventually moving to Canada and dying of lung cancer. He never acknowledged or apologized for what he had done to Ye.
Throughout the novel, various characters reflect on their own individual impact on the world. But though Bai’s actions would change the course of Ye Wenjie’s life—which, in turn, would shape all of human history—Bai himself is completely unremarkable. Thus the gap between an individual’s actions and the effect of those actions emerges with particular force here; even the most average people can have extraordinary impact.
Themes
Ye is transported to a women’s prison, in part because “by birth and family background” she is already considered politically suspect. In the jail, Ye is interviewed by a beautiful, seemingly kind young woman named Cheng Lihua. Cheng believes that Ye is merely confused because she has read “too many books.” Cheng then presents Ye with a document to sign, but Ye, not yet trusting Cheng’s kindness, insists on reading the document first.
Though Ye Wenjie does not have quite her father’s extensive background in academia, her own time as a college student is enough to automatically make her suspect. And just as Ye is distrusted by most people around her, she now begins to distrust everyone and everything, as can be seen in her skepticism of Cheng Lihua’s seeming kindness.
Themes
The document is all about Ye’s father, Ye Zhetai—and worse still, the source for the report is Ye Wenxue, Ye’s younger sister. Wenxue is a deeply passionate Red Guard, to the point that she has even incriminated her own father. As Ye reads on, she realizes that the report is about her father’s involvement in the mysterious double-bomb project of 1964. If Ye signs the document, it will be used to torture or even execute her father’s former colleagues. With this in mind, Ye refuses to sign.
In addition to being betrayed by her mother Shao Lin, Ye now comes to terms with the fact that her younger sister also abused her family’s trust by giving private details to government investigators. Though Ye does not seem to care very much for her father’s former colleagues, she is so disgusted by her sister’s behavior that she will not sign the document.
Themes
Cheng explains that if Ye signs the document, she will be let off the hook for supposedly writing Bai’s letter. However, if Ye does not sign, she will be prosecuted as an active counter-revolutionary and will face cruel punishment. Still, Ye will not sign. Frustrated, Cheng grabs a bucket of cold water and pours it all over Ye. In the cold air of the Inner Mongolian winter, Ye begins to get so chilly that she starts to hallucinate.
Once again, Ye’s fundamental distrust of humanity is confirmed: though Cheng Lihua initially appeared to be warm, she is now (quite literally) icy. This moment also illustrates the casual brutality that was so prevalent during the Communist Revolution.
Themes
First, Ye sees her sister, Wenxue, waving a flag on top of a building. Ye recalls that Wenxue was killed two years ago in a conflict between Red Guard factions. Ye then pictures Bai Mulin, Cheng, and her mother Shao Lin waving the flag—and then she blacks out.
Though she is never explicitly named, it is now clear that Ye Wenxue is the passionate teenager from the very first scene. But rather than mourning her sister’s loss, Ye Wenjie sees her as merely one of the many figures—alongside Bai and her mother—who have broken her trust terribly. Not for the last time, Ye’s various traumas begin to blur together into a narrative about humanity as a whole.
Themes
