Death's End

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2010

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Parts 4-6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Origami Boat

Throughout Death’s End, the motif of an origami boat reflects the theme of The Fragility and Resilience of Humanity. The image of the boat first appears in Yun Tianming’s dream: “He sat on a small origami boat drifting over placid water, oarless. The sky was a misty, dark gray. […] There was no horizon, no shore” (34). The dream works as an analogy of humanity’s position in the universe: The paper boat carries the dream’s sole human, while the large expanse of water shows the unlimited vastness of the universe—a universe whose material component poses a direct threat to human’s vessel. Additionally, in the dream, Yun Tianming has little agency to propel himself because he lacks oars; similarly, humanity cannot steer a safe course in the vast universe because they lack the technologically advanced tools to do so.

Nevertheless, the dream’s boat does not sink or falter. Instead, despite the threat of the water both above and below the boat, and the lack of a shore or destination, the boat still carries Yun Tianming. This small protection signals that the story of the boat will eventually become a potential lifeline to humans when Yun Tianming uses the image to hint to AA and Cheng Xin the defining principles of curvature propulsion. Transitioning from an image of fragility to a symbol of resilience, the origami boat in Yun Tianming’s fable is an act of resistance to censorship and of the hope that humans will be able to parse the indirect metaphors to ascertain Yun Tianming’s meaning.

Pluto’s Monolith

When the Solar System begins collapsing into two dimensions, Cheng Xin and AA flee to Pluto, where they work to complete the task of preserving human history and culture. These artifacts are kept in a museum, by throwing them into space, Cheng Xin, Luo Ji, and AA hope that even after humanity’s demise, a record of their planet will continue to exist as flat images. This post-humanity mission is marked by a large black monolith that resembles an oversized tombstone: “This black monolith was the only protrusion above the white ground. It gave off an eerie sense of simplicity, as though it was an abstraction of the real world” (503).

The monolith represents the grave of human civilization. It has been constructed on Pluto, the farthest celestial body from the Sun, so that extraterrestrial visitors may encounter it and so that a dark forest strike would not affect it. Beneath the monolith is the cultural production of humanity, most of which is simply history carved into stone—the best way to preserve information over long spans of time. This carved stone makes the monolith all the more resemble a tomb, demonstrating humanity’s wish to be remembered and to leave some kind of legacy.

Miniature Computer

The miniature computer that Cheng Xin, Guan Yifan, and Sophon leave in their mini-universe at the conclusion of Death’s End is a symbol that supports the theme of Surviving Existential Threats. Like the museum left on Pluto by the Solar System humans, this relic encapsulates history: “The box contained a miniature computer whose quantum memory held all the information in the mini-universe’s computer—this was practically the entire memory of the Trisolaran and Earth civilizations” (601). Characters leave this cache behind in hopes that someone in the new universe will find it and decipher it, effectively preserving both civilizations and cementing their legacies. This miniature computer thus represents the essential need of living beings to fight in all possible ways against extinction—if only to continue on as a memory. Survival therefore becomes not merely prolonging life, but also preserving the evidence of having once lived. This is the only way that any civilization can find meaning and purpose in a cruel and indifferent universe. Both the miniature computer and the mini-universe that contains it are a life boat into the new universe, with the memories of Trisolaris and Earth as its only passenger.