41 pages • 1 hour read
Ruth WareOne by One
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Grief and Its Short-Term and Long-Term Effects
Very early in the novel, grief manifests in Erin as she swims in the chalet pool and reflects on the sky, which matches the color of her late boyfriend’s eyes. It becomes abundantly clear that Erin has come to work at the chalet carrying her grief with her. She notes that one of the joys of the chalet is that “[y]ou get to have a fresh start” (14), which she manifests by being extremely private about her past. She has repressed her grief, and it most often emerges when she sleeps in the form of post-traumatic-stress-induced nightmares. This tight-lipped control is inevitably disrupted when Topher reveals Erin’s real identity, forcing her to relive the avalanche and open up about the experience. Confiding in Danny refreshes Erin’s grief, but it is not until she tells the fully story to Liz that she faces the entirety of her grief head-on. The confession that she was the one who suggested skiing off-piste is what causes her to reflect honestly on the tragedy. This reflection enables her to face her fears later that same night when she attempts to escape the murderous Liz by taking a dangerous off-piste trail to town. Her survival does not dispel her grief, but it does enable her to move on. She can comfort Inigo, and by the end of the novel she returns to England, “where Will’s grieving parents and [her] own family have been waiting patiently for [her] to make peace with [her] ghosts” (363). This shows that Erin has come to terms with her grief and is ready to face it instead of suppressing it.
Other characters in the novel experience grief in a much more visceral way as they face loss in real time. Following each death, the characters progress through the stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—and their actions are impacted by their experience of this emotion. In turn, they attempt to rationalize how Eva may have survived, mourn the deaths of their coworkers, and lash out at each other as they try to come to terms with the tragedy they are trapped within. It is grief that drives Inigo from the chalet to find the police, and it is grief that drives Topher to make accusations against Erin and expose her history. At the end of the novel, the Snoop staff are able to finally face their grief outside the terror and paranoia of the isolated chalet. Erin recognizes their emotions and feels kinship with them, having experienced this gamut of emotion already.
Economic Disparity and the Equalizing Effect of Tragedy
One by One is a novel with clearly defined economic stratification. The characters fall into the “haves” and “have-nots”—the financially stable and the financially struggling. This dynamic creates an initial tension because economic motivation creates the first conflict of the novel. However, the delineation in the characters’ socioeconomic statuses blurs after the avalanche, showing there is a limit to what money can buy.
The first portion of the novel establishes the economic disparity between the characters. The Snoop team inhabits the upper echelon of society: Topher, Rik, and Elliot met at boarding school, while Eva is described as having a “budget for shoes [that] was higher than [Liz’s] whole salary” (34). Most of the Snoop group feel no discomfort in taking items from the bar and adding them to the end bill, eating rich foods, or making demands of Danny and Erin. With this sense of economic entitlement comes “that million-dollar confidence” that those who are not in such a secure economic position do not possess (22). Danny, Liz, and Erin all fall into a separate economic class. Liz, when interacting with Rik early in the book, notes, “I know I am a creature from another planet to them. Weird. Awkward. Working class” (24). It is this working-class status that causes Erin to be sympathetic toward Liz and that causes Liz’s outburst about not fitting in on the first night: “It’s like everyone has the key to this and I don’t!” (37). This sense of otherness and economic difference extends even to skiing, apparent when Erin and Liz share disparaging remark about the old boys’ club that seems present among the Snoop staff.
These economic boundaries begin to degrade as soon as tragedy strikes. Erin and Danny almost immediately step into positions of authority, helping the group navigate first the complexities of Eva’s disappearance and then the complexities of being trapped in an avalanche with a murderer. They transition from positions of servitude to controlling the flow of action. No longer are they at a disadvantage; in fact, their guidance ensures the group’s survival as they help the others navigate the horror they find themselves in. In a symbolic moment at the end of the novel, the surviving group members eat together at the bed and breakfast. Danny and Erin are held in equal regard to the remaining members of the Snoop staff, and they are held in confidence when Topher shares the video of Liz’s first murder. When the conclusion finds the company bankrupt, it is Danny and Erin—also stripped of their jobs—who do not experience anxiety and fear, for they know that their experiences will give them strength in the future.
The Power of Fear
As in many novels of the psychological thriller genre, fear is an important component that increases tension and causes characters to behave in unpredictable ways. Every character in Ware’s novel experiences fear, though their responses to that fear vary significantly depending on their position in the group and the circumstances they are trapped within.
Erin and Danny are, from the outset, the strongest and least fearful of the group. They see themselves as outsiders to the point that Danny comments, “We’re the only people who can’t possibly be suspected. We didn’t know any of them before they came here. We weren’t up on that mountain. We’ve got no connection to any of that group” (158). Their positions of authority also grant them some protection, as it is evident they are the most experienced of the bunch. However, as the death count rises and time continues to pass without assistance from emergency responders, Danny’s fear leads him to become protective of Erin. When he is chosen to accompany one of the groups leaving the chalet, he forces Erin to swear against letting anyone else inside the building until he or the police return. Erin’s fear ultimately results in her fight-or-flight response triggering when she feels her life threatened by Liz. This fear forces her to face “[her] worst nightmare” by skiing off-piste for the first time since the deaths of her brother and boyfriend (313). The Snoop staff, trapped in an avalanche with a murderer among them, pass through different phases of paranoia. Topher is accused of involvement in Eva’s murder, even by people who saw him at the top of the mountain. Paranoia is what spurs the group into the rising action and climax, as their fear drives them into the dangerous outdoors to save themselves.
Due to the nature of the genre, Liz’s fear is no less important, for it comprises the root of the novel’s conflict. In her confession to Erin, she reveals that she murdered a man in self-defense, and Erin realizes that “Eva knew something about Liz that could ruin her… Eva was the one who covered up what happened. She held that evidence in her hands. And she must have been holding that fact over Liz’s head all these years” (298-99). It was fear of Eva that drove Liz to kill her, and subsequently, her fear of being discovered led her to kill Elliot and Ani. Liz’s fear of her past coming back to haunt her overrides all common sense, instigating the events of the book.
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