41 pages • 1-hour read
One by One
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Memory
Because One by One is told through two first-person perspectives, all the knowledge the reader receives is filtered through Erin and Liz’s experiences. Both women have very intense memories that emerge at different points in the novel, and these flashbacks inform why they act the way they do, comprising a motif about past memories shaping present circumstances.
Erin’s memories center around the avalanche that killed her brother and boyfriend. These memories do not affect her day-to-day life, since she focused exclusively on her work and only rarely slips into her own past. However, the arrival of the avalanche that buries Chalet Perce-Neige triggers these memories in a way she cannot control. She notes, “for a moment I thought it was some kind of flashback, like PTSD” (110). Still, she does not share her experience with anyone until late in the novel, after Topher verbalizes the memories that she tries so hard to suppress. She then relives the traumatic experience twice: first with Danny in the staff quarters, and then with Liz after the others leave to seek help. It is not until the second time Erin tells her story that she reveals a key piece of information—that she was the one who suggested that her group ski off-piste the day of the avalanche. When Erin is forced to live entirely in the moment as she flees from Liz, she finally overcomes the past that haunts her. It is near the end of the novel, when she comforts Inigo about his traumatic experience, that she notes, “Maybe he will learn to live with what happened, just as I did. Just as I do” (341). She is finally able to return home and, in doing so, share her memories with others.
Liz’s memories are less clear but more frequent in the novel. She has survived a history of neglect and abuse at the hands of family and school peers. Memories of these experiences periodically arise in response to her self-consciousness or as a reaction to others around her. The first of these moments appears as she chews on her nails and her mind is filled with her mother’s voice saying, “Liz, please don’t do that, you know Daddy doesn’t like it” (22). She hears her mother’s voice whenever she chews her fingers or cracks her knuckles, and she hears her childhood bullies when she feels self-conscious around the others at the chalet. The memory of her assault and first murder hangs over her, although the reader is not made aware of this experience until late in the book. The constant, overwhelming nature of this memory and what it could do to her eventually drives her to commit her second murder, targeting Eva to remove the reminder from her life.
Nature
Nature is a powerful and ubiquitous force in the novel, representing the unstoppable might of things that cannot be controlled. From the outset, nature makes itself known to the characters. Intense snowfall makes for an unpleasant trip up to the chalet. The foreshadowing of the avalanche occurs early in the book, when Erin talks to a local baker about the impending snowfall and subsequent avalanche risk, which is heightened because the control teams cannot perform their duties. The snow increases as the day wears on, becoming an oppressive force to the Snoop staff who attempt to navigate it. When the group decides to summit the mountain for one final ski trail, the snow becomes malicious, blocking their access to one of the trails and impeding their vision. In hampering the others and providing cover, this intense snowfall enables Liz to kill Eva, obscuring her so no one suspects anything until it is too late.
Nature’s omnipotence is most apparent when the avalanche crashes into the chalet, destroying the pathways into town. This isolation at the hands of snowfall forces the group into a position of fear and survival. The avalanche strips them of many modern comforts like internet, electricity, and even running water. The only thing that drives the group from their shelter is the more immediate and frightening thought of a murderer within the chalet.
Given its formidable strength and looming presence, it is fitting that nature is the thing that removes the biggest human threat in the story. While Liz chases Erin down the mountain, Erin takes an off-piste route that pits her against nature as much as it pits her against Liz. She relies on her skill to make it down the mountain, an individual battling the natural forces that try to overwhelm her. In a similar way, Liz attempts to overcome nature to catch and eliminate Erin before word spreads about her crimes. In the end, nature refuses to be an accomplice to Liz’s crimes, and a head-on collision with a cliff face takes her life. In this, the reader sees that nothing, not even desperation or malice, can overcome nature.
Technology
One by One centers on a group of people who work for a technology company as they go on a private retreat to discuss business and buyout options. Their phone application, Snoop, allows people to synchronize music regardless of distance. A person can “snoop” on someone else, listen to their music in real time, and follow people they feel a particular connection to. Celebrities have accounts that allow fans to follow what they are listening to, and private citizens set up accounts to develop playlists and gain followers. As Erin describes it, “there’s something incredibly addictive about pressing play on the song they are actually listening to at this precise moment, knowing you are beat for beat in sync with each other” (68). Liz, however, notes the invasive nature of an application that allows anyone to listen in on you. She says,
After I left the company, I deleted the app. I wanted everything about Snoop behind me, and I didn’t like the idea of Topher, Eva, and the others keeping track on me through the software […] this time my profile is locked down as tight as it will go, and there is a junk email address attached to the account (21-22).
As the book progresses, it becomes evident that there is more to Snoop than is advertised to its users. Miranda alludes to “geosnoop” early in the novel, which is a GPS upgrade that allows users to see other users within 50 meters of them. This reveal that the Snoop application collects more data than the company originally implied, and it allows Elliot to track Eva’s phone. Doing so confirms her death, as the GPS locates her phone off the side of La Sorcière. Elliot eventually uses the geosnoop update and GPS tracking to identify that Eva’s phone signal was last seen next to Snoop user “Anon101.” When Elliot investigates Anon101, he realizes it is Liz, who then targets him because he has irrefutable proof she was the last person to see Eva alive.
At the novel’s conclusion, Snoop declares bankruptcy because of investor pullout, and the buyout option is withdrawn because of the tragedies atop the mountain. However, Danny and the rest of the world have already moved on to the next application, Choon, which is “the new Snoop, mate. Only better” (368), highlighting the rise and fall of technological trends.
Unlock the meaning behind every key symbol & motif
See how recurring imagery, objects, and ideas shape the narrative.
- Explore how the author builds meaning through symbolism
- Understand what symbols & motifs represent in the text
- Connect recurring ideas to themes, characters, and events