55 pages • 1 hour read
John MarrsThe One
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A 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
Implications of the Soulmate
John Marrs reports the novel’s inspiration came from others’ conversations about the experience of “love at first sight.” Fascinated by those stories, he wondered both what underlies the experience and what would happen if everyone were guaranteed such a love (Sobel, Ariel. “What Happens When You Can Find Your Soulmate From a Blood Test?” The Advocate, 13 February 2018).
The idea that everyone has one perfect soulmate dates to antiquity. It appears in the Egyptian Book of the Dead (2000 BCE) in Babylonian mythology and the Judeo-Christian creation story in Genesis. The idea of the soulmate suffuses folktales, modern romance, the music we listen to, and it is introduced to children as soon as they are old enough to watch the classic Disney movies.
In Plato’s Symposium (360 BCE), the poet and comic playwright Aristophanes suggests that humans were originally a hermaphroditic species with eight limbs, two heads, and one soul. These creatures offended the gods, and Zeus split them in two, condemning each half to wander the earth in search of the missing part of itself:
And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself […] the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the other’s sight, as I may say, even for a moment (Plato. Symposium. Trans. Benjamin Jowett).
Throughout The One, Marrs’s description of his characters meeting their Matches resembles Aristophanes’s account. However, in the 2018 Advocate interview, Marrs says that while he does believe in the possibility of a soulmate, it is not the kind promised by Match Your DNA. Instead of believing that love can fall effortlessly into place by dint of fate, Marrs believes that all relationships require effort. To explore that philosophy, the novel replaces the “divided soul” mythology with the less romantic agency of genetics. However, while Matches are determined primarily by pheromones and perhaps other unspecified biological factors, the novel suggests that the highest forms of love transcend such limits and require personal action.
Marrs puts little effort into persuading the reader that something like the Match gene exists or how it works. It’s a plot device, a premise without which the story would be impossible. Marrs does, however, suggest a number of things that might be changed by the technology. For example, the discovery of the Match gene leads to social bias against unMatched couples; Matched couples look down on unMatched couples, who are widely seen as less happy and less stable. To avoid that stigma, couples sometimes falsely claim to have been Matched.
Matches aren’t restricted by geography, race, or gender. In a culture that emphasizes the idea of true love, prejudice regarding race or sexuality takes second place to the supremacy of the perfect Match. Some of the storylines suggest that the intensity of the Match might trigger alterations in brain structure; a coma may resolve when exposed to a Match, and psychopathy may give way to rudimentary empathy.
In the end, the five protagonists’ storylines illustrate that choice is ultimately more important than fate, and the author rewards the characters in proportion to their commitment to higher values.
The Intrusion of Technology into Private Lives
Christopher’s storyline highlights the hazards of technological intrusion into private lives. Christopher accesses his targets first through online dating apps. Once he charms a woman into giving him her phone number, he can use the number to find out virtually everything about her life, even inserting tracking software into her phone. In addition, most of the characters use social media to scope out their Matches’ lives—their interests, activities, or marital status.
Ellie’s storyline illustrates an obvious problem: corporations having access to our personal data. Tim exploits corporate technological vulnerability by hacking the Match Your DNA computer system, after which he can manipulate their software to create false Matches.
The novel’s message is that not only is technology intrusive, but that we are far too trusting of it and perhaps of our fellow human beings. Technology allows us to engage a wider range of people, increasing our likelihood of encountering a predator like Christopher. It also makes it easier for predators to conceal their predation. While a victim might pick up subliminal warning signals in person, such intuition falters online.
Match Your DNA is the ultimate intrusion of technology into one of the most private spheres of life. Users submit the fundamental building blocks of themselves—their DNA. According to the story premise, worldwide culture is so obsessed with perfect love that people entrust technology with their fate.
Selfish Versus Moral Love
The One explores various motives for finding a Match—motives roughly divided between personal gain and the desire for intimacy. However, the characters sometimes have mixed motives, and in some cases, selfish motives might mask as selflessness. Mandy, for example, desires to be loved and to have a child of her own, but her underlying selfishness shows when she remarks to her sister Karen that because Karen isn’t Matched to her children’s father, those children must be inferior. Compare this to Nick, whose son, Dylan, isn’t even his own child, yet nothing could make him love Dylan more. Mandy wants not only a child to love but a superior child to give her a sense of significance.
While Nick’s motive is entirely selfless, Sally makes only a pretense of unselfish motives, and the depth of her duplicity isn’t exposed until after her death. She claims to seek security, but she wants an easy way out of the engagement. Jade joins Match Your DNA in search of love, but her motives become complicated when her connection with Kevin feels inadequate—especially after meeting Mark. Jade interprets her marriage to Kevin as a selfless act, but that might be an oversimplification; she loves him platonically, but she also feels confused and guilty. She hopes the marriage will create the desired feelings.
Christopher’s reason for registering is less selfish than self-referential. He is simply curious to see who would Match him. He has no need or desire for personal connection. Amy, while she is seeking connection, joins Match Your DNA out of pragmatism. It is more efficient than finding time to date with her time-consuming job.
The common theme is that Match Your DNA is essentially selfish. Registrants seek the easy road to happiness. They aren’t looking for someone whom they can learn to love—the whole point of Match Your DNA is to find someone who is guaranteed to love you. Matched couples can undoubtedly be deeply devoted to one another, which supports family stability and child rearing. Society, too, can benefit from stable families, but a Match isn’t a choice to put effort into a relationship and care for another person.
The author suggests that the existence of the Match gene has reduced racism and anti-gay bias, but society appears to be exchanging one set of prejudices for another. At the end of the story, it seems inevitable that Match Your DNA will be destroyed, and that may be a good thing; the plotlines’ dominant implication is that personal commitment to relationship is morally superior to wanting love to “happen” to you.
The Certainty of Chance
The novel explores the complex and often contradictory relationship between certainty and chance, or risk. While Match Your DNA offers the certainty of finding your genetically destined mate, that certainty involves turning your fate over to a higher power (in this case, science) and relinquishing control—thus paradoxically sacrificing the certainty that comes with agency. However, the characters differ in how they individually define chance versus certainty. For some, Match Your DNA represents rolling the dice and seeing what providence has in store for you: You might end up with a criminal, someone already married, or someone who otherwise destabilizes your self-understanding, but that’s the risk you take. For others, Match Your DNA means an end to chance, an end to hoping you eventually bump into someone compatible.
Sometimes, the characters’ interpretation of what constitutes chance and certainty depends on their individual risk tolerance. Nick has a high tolerance because he knows he is willing to put hard work into relationships, Matched or not. He insists to Sally that they can trust their own ability to love one another. This sounds courageous, but it may also be easier for Nick than for other characters; there is no indication that Nick has ever faced great setbacks. Mandy, by contrast, has been deeply hurt by events beyond her control, such as her two miscarriages and her husband leaving her. Knowing that the fulfillment of her deepest desires is also beyond her control, she reduces risk by putting her faith in something she believes to be infallible. In this sense, Mandy may lack Nick’s openness, but her understanding of life is not entirely naïve, either. She paradoxically feels she gains control over her life by relinquishing that control to technology.
Tim, too, encourages Ellie to relinquish control when he presses her to meet him despite her reservations. However, unlike Nick who emphasizes trusting your own ability, Tim tells Ellie to give up self-control and trust something outside herself—the Matching system she created. There’s an ironic undertone in Tim’s suggestion, as both he and Ellie secretly know of Ellie’s unethical methods in developing the Match technology. While the company promises better than 99.99% accuracy, that technology’s development involved stealing or purchasing DNA samples from vulnerable populations, criminals, and the dead.
In addition, even if Match Your DNA can guarantee accuracy, there are other hazards and pitfalls for its clients. The company can’t reveal the criminal records of any of their registrants, although they report to their clients if their Match has a criminal conviction and indicate the severity of that conviction. Moreover, even with protections in place, Match Your DNA can only guard against known convictions. Cases like Christopher’s may slip through because Christopher has never been caught for his crimes. Then there is Mandy and Richard’s case, where Richard is in a coma, and his DNA was taken without consent. Match Your DNA may offer more the illusion of security than the real thing; a client is certain to find a soulmate, but they are also certain to face risk.
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