One Plus One: A Novel

The starkly contrasting cars in the novel function as a symbol of the vast class divide separating Jess’s and Ed’s worlds. Jess’s family car is a decrepit, uninsured Rolls-Royce, which is a relic of her estranged husband’s failed ambitions. It sits as a monument to their financial stagnation and lies “rusting in [their] garage for the best part of two years” (21). This once-luxurious vehicle’s decline and immobility mirrors the Thomas family’s financial precarity and inability to move forward. Jess’s desperate attempt to use it for Tanzie’s trip to Scotland fails, dramatizing The Impact of Socioeconomic Background on Opportunity.

In contrast, Ed’s pristine, powerful Audi is a symbol of his wealth, freedom, and insulation from hardship. Its efficiency and comfort mark him as someone for whom the world makes room. However, once the Thomas family invades its sterile, ordered space with their characteristic chaos, the Audi becomes a site where their two disparate worlds collide. It is a crucible that confines the characters together in a space that highlights their differences in opportunity and perspective. The cars do not just represent different economic realities; they symbolize the opposing states of the characters’ lives, one mired in helplessness and the other insulated by privilege,