59 pages 1 hour read

Liu Cixin, Transl. Joel Martinsen

The Dark Forest

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008

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Essay Topics

1.

Each of the Wallfacers has a different approach to the Trisolar Crisis. Choose two Wallfacers and examine how their plans reflect their unique view of the conflict and humanity’s place in the world.

2.

Mutually assured destruction is a threat levelled many times throughout The Dark Forest. What does it say about the novel’s worldview that Luo Ji’s threat has its desired effect, while Manuel Rey Diaz’s threat does not?

3.

Luo Ji’s theory about the universe being “a dark forest” is what inspires his plan to save humanity. How does the novel’s treatment of the Trisolar Crisis express this theory and how does it affect the novel’s concluding message?