Note: One is One and All Alone

Summary.

                  “One is One and All Alone” by Nicholas Fisk is a science fiction story, set in 2045.  The main character is Trish, an 11-year old girl who is the only child on a spaceship to Trion. Her father is the Executive Officer of the spaceship and her mother is in Trion helping to set up a space station.  She will only meet her mother in mid January 2047.After three months, she feels lonely and bored as she does not have any real friends to talk to except her private, multi-functional diary: the Voice Printer (VP). VP is an intelligent computer which keeps Trish entertained with its ability to perform many functions. Through her dialogue sessions with VP, Trish learns about clones and the cloning process. The idea of cloning fascinates Trish and she soon decides to create a clone to keep her company in the spaceship Bio lab without her father’s knowledge. She names her new identical twin “Clo” and initially it becomes her perfect friend and companion.  They have fun playing and sharing their time together. However, certain mannerism of Clo begins to irritate Trish as the clone behaves and thinks like her.  Soon they start to argue and disagree with each other over trivial matters. The last straw happens one night when Clo starts referring to Trish’s mum as her mum and this upsets Trish as she feels her privacy is being invaded. The next day, Trish opens up her diary and confides in VP that she does not like to be “swamped, invaded and taken over.”  At that instant, she decides to dispose off Clo forever through the “DISPOSAL” hatch near her cabin. The story ends with a twist when it is Trish who is disposed by Clo. Clo then assumes Trish’s identity and Trish’s dad is not aware of the change at all. Clo then enjoys being “one is one and all alone” and her new lease of life as Trish in the spaceship. Source.

Plot.

1. Exposition

The characters and setting are introduced. The main character, Trish described her loneliness of being the only child on the spaceship. The characters of VoicePrinter and her parents are also introduced. She described the spaceship and that they were heading to Trion.

2. Rising Action

- Trish was sick of being alone, bored of computer images and sounds, and she wished for a human companion of her age. She learned the word “clone” from VP and then decided to make a clone of herself.

- Trish thought that the clone, Clo would be a perfect friend and it was indeed a perfect friend at first. She even communicated less with VP after she had Clo as her friend.

3. Climax

- Then the conflict began when Trish started to feel uncomfortable with Clo due to the fact that they were totally identical including in terms of action and even thought. 

4. Falling action.

- Trish decided to get rid of Clo and she was thinking of disposing it out from the spaceship. 

- One of them was successfully being disposed out through the hatch while another one continued boarding the spaceship.

5. Resolution.

- Surprisingly, it was actually Trish who had been disposed and not Clo. This shows that they really had the same thought of disposing each other but Clo acted first to dispose Trish out from the spaceship. Thus, Clo took Trish’s place in the spaceship, feeling the sense of freedom; the feeling that Trish would have felt if she was not the one who had been disposed.

- Clo was boarding the spaceship happily as the eleven years old Trish. In fact, it acted as a more cheerful Trish than before as her father also noticed the good change in “Trish”.

Theme.

1. Loneliness.  The main character, Trish is the only child and she has no sibling. She lives in a spaceship which is heading to Planet Trion. She is the only child in the spaceship while the rest of the crew are adults who are busy running the system 24/7. To make the situation worse, her parents are extremely busy with their own works and have no time to company her. Her father is busy with the workloads in the spaceship while her mother is on Trion, setting up the space station. The Voice Printing is the only friends she has, but as the time passes by, she starts to feel bored with this kind of relationship when there are only computer images and sounds. Thus, she starts to have the feeling that she really needs someone to talk to and her loneliness has given her the idea to create a clone of herself.

2. The need of love and attention. Trish feels the loneliness as her parents always busy with their works and that causes her to get the idea to clone herself. In her mind, cloning is the only way to escape from this boredom and imprisonment so that she will have somebody to talk to and play with - somebody of her age. She wants someone to accompany her to replace the roles of her parents who will never have time to be with her.

3. Another person can be a mirror of ourselves. Based on this short story, Trish cannot stand Clo’s picking habit. Ironically, she doesn't realize that Clo is just being herself; Clo's behaviours are the reflection of herself.

Characters and Characterizations.

1. Trish

Trish is the main character of this short story. She is portrayed as a lonely child as her parents are  busy with their own works. She has no friend, no sibling and her only friend in the spaceship is VoicePrinter. She is bored playing and talking to a machine and she needs a real human of her age to talk to and play with. She cloned herself and named her Clo. Trish is brilliant in science and technology. She clones herself without anyone’s help. 

2. Clo

Clo is the clone of Trish. Her character is totally the same as Trish’s because it is Trish’s clone. She does whatever Trish does, for examples she has picking habit, she keeps repeating what Trish says  and she feels what Trish is feeling. This situation makes Trish to feel that Clo is annoying, thus the quarrel starts.

3. VoicePrinter (VP)

A machine and Trish's best friend. Although it is a non-living thing, it can react and responsd to Trish just like a human. VP is loyal and always be by Trish's side - playing games with her and also a genius machine as it can correct Trish’s spellings and punctuation. It has also become a teacher to Trish. It also gives Trish dictionary lesson and provides the information on cloning process to Trish.

4. Father and Mother

Busy working people - running the spaceship and setting up the space station. Her father is a caring person as he is always poking his head on Trish’s door and asking Trish about her life. However, he fails to show his love and Trish is disappointed because of that.

Settings.

1. Time

In the future: 2045. Trish mentions that they leaves Earth on 12 March 2045 and they will not reach Trion until mid – January 2047. Modern creation such as the voice printing is mentioned too. It respond to human's actions; talks and even plays game as well as teaches Trish about the dictionary lesson.

2. Place

Mainly in a spaceship which is on its way heading to Trion planet. Every event occurs in this ship. Trish’s father works here, the BioLab and Trish's room. It is also the place which causes Trish to feel lonely without any human friend.

3. Social

Lonely and workaholic society. 

The lonely society is portrayed through Trish's character who is always being alone as she is the only child on the spaceship while the rest of the crew are adults. The only friend that she has is the VoicePrinter (VP). Her loneliness leads her poor judgement of cloying herself.  

The workaholic society is shown trough the characters of Trish’s parents. They are too busy with their own workloads. The father is busy running the spaceship while the mother is on Trion, setting  up the space station. Their hectic schedules cause theme to forget their responsibilities towards their daughter.