One by One

The claw marks that visually populate the narrative of One by One are a symbol of Lindsay’s ongoing deception and the resulting terror in the wilderness. Claire is the first to notice the claw marks on the bark of a tree, early in the group’s time in the woods. At first, Claire believes that the claw marks are a sign of a dangerous animal lurking nearby, as she notes, “The claws that broke the bark were obviously extremely sharp. And there’s a second set of claw marks above the first. Was something climbing the tree?” (89). When Claire’s fear rises, she either sees the claw marks or thinks of them. She thinks she sees an animal while searching for Michelle, and her thoughts immediately drift back to the claw marks: “Was it the same animal I saw in that bush? The one that made the horrifying claw marks in the bark?” (156).

Claire’s fear begins rising in intensity in tandem with the rising intensity of Lindsay’s plot. When she first sees the claw marks, she’s afraid, but she is afraid of an animal—a rational fear to have while lost in the wilderness. However, after Michelle goes missing, the animal is now “horrifying,” taking on a nearly mythic, beast-like quality.