The Three-Body Problem Lesson Plan

Consider the description of the Trisolaran listener and of his existential reflections on life. How does this compare to the description of the spiritual crisis experienced earlier in the book by Ye Wenjie?

In one of the more surprising moments of the novel, the sense of crisis felt by the Trisolaran listener closely parallels that experienced by Ye Wenjie earlier on the Red Coast Base. For both individuals, the cause of their spiritual crisis is at once existential and social. Existential, because both perceive and shudder at the thought of the endless impersonality and amorality of the universe; and social, because of the harsh, cruel social dynamics which have caused...