Photo.03: Chloe Price - Loss and Anger, the Backbone of a Troubled Girl

Arcadia Bay, Oregon, where the cold ocean breeze of late autumn blows through. The sound of dead leaves scraping against the asphalt and the distant whistle of a rusted fishing boat melt into the melancholic melody of an acoustic guitar. There is an existence that seems to condense the very atmosphere of this beautiful yet desolate “dead-end town” into the shape of a single human being. That is Chloe Price, the subject of this study.

Blue-dyed hair, tattooed arms, the ceaseless exhalation of cigarette smoke, and a barrage of venomous words that seem to intimidate those around her. Looking only at her surface, she is the picture-perfect “rebellious delinquent girl.” However, beneath that bravado lies the poignant sorrow of youth and the pain of irreparable loss. At the intersection of Chaos Theory, Philosophical determinism, and teenage psychopathology encompassed by this work, Chloe Price transcends being a mere character; she stands tall as a “monument of existence,” desperately trying to keep breathing while undergoing Identity Diffusion .

In this report, we intentionally detach our perspective from the sci-fi elements surrounding time and the ensemble drama of other characters, to vertically delve to the utmost limit into “the inside of a single girl named Chloe Price.” By comprehensively integrating micro-data such as the notes left in her room, the lyrics of the indie rock she loves, the tattoos carved into her body, and the graffiti in the junkyard, we will elucidate her self-destructive behavioral principles and the underlying philosophy, while strictly distinguishing between facts and observations.

1. The Primal Experience of Loss and the Psychopathology of the “Abandoned Child”

The story of Chloe Price and her mental clock have been frozen since a certain day in 2008. What defines her present are two decisive “losses” that occurred in this past.

1.1 [Fact] The Death of William and the Departure of Her Best Friend

As a historical objective fact explicitly stated in the game, when Chloe was 13 years old, her beloved father, William Price, suddenly passed away in a traffic accident . Furthermore, immediately after his funeral, her one and only best friend, Maxine (Max) Caulfield, with whom she was supposed to share her grief and support each other, moved to Seattle due to her parents’ circumstances . Subsequently, communication from Max gradually ceased, leaving Chloe completely isolated at the time she needed help the most .

1.2 [Observation] Signs of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Defense Mechanisms

This series of facts implanted an irrecoverable trauma and an “abandonment experience” into the psyche of a teenager in her developmental stage. Analyzing Chloe’s words and actions from a psychological perspective, it is observed that her behavioral principles deeply align with the clinical features of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) .

While trauma may “explain” her behavior, it does not “justify” her mistreatment of others . However, to understand the depth of her pain, it is necessary to squarely face the runaway psychological mechanisms as shown in the table below.

1.3 [Fact and Observation] Yearning for “Electric Sheep” and Privileged Loneliness

What most vividly illustrates the complexity of Chloe’s inner self is her diary text in Life is Strange: Before the Storm.

In her diary, she writes about her current situation where no one reprimands her for skipping school, stating, “It’s like all of a sudden, I’m invincible” . Furthermore, she describes this as a “perk/upside” of being a “dead dad girl,” adopting a cynical attitude towards the surrounding adults who treat her like she’s walking on eggshells . Also, she notes that while masturbating, she found herself thinking not of the protagonist Deckard from the movie Blade Runner, but of Pris, a replicant (android), and self-deprecatingly writes, “Chloe, the Electric Sheep” .

The observation derived from this fact is a cruel mental transformation where Chloe has begun to use her own tragedy as a kind of “identity shield.” The label of “dead dad girl” functions as the strongest barrier rejecting the intervention of others. And her self-projection onto an “electric sheep (android)” is a manifestation of ultimate self-denial and escapism, desiring to detach herself from the emotions (sorrow and pain) of a flesh-and-blood human and numb her own heart like an artificial, cold machine .

2. The Twilight of Arcadia Bay and the Texts of a Dysfunctional Family

Chloe’s deteriorating mental state is closely linked to the environment surrounding her. The fictional rural town of Arcadia Bay, Oregon, itself harbors a sense of stagnation akin to the “Rust Belt,” having lost the vitality of its former fishing and forestry industries and falling into economic decline.

2.1 [Fact] Worldview as a “Shithole”

Chloe routinely refers to this town with derogatory terms such as “hickhole” and “shithole” . Furthermore, regarding her reason for trying to con money out of a wealthy man at a bar, she states, “I had debts and needed money to get out of this town” .

2.2 [Observation] Synchronicity of Environment and Psychology

Chloe’s despair is perfectly synchronized with the social context of the declining city of Arcadia Bay . The structure where adults lose their economic leeway and only a privileged few, like the Prescott Family, control the town, strips away future options from teenagers in poverty and single-parent households like Chloe . The process of the town slowly dying is the very process of her heart slowly dying, and her anger is directed at the entire adult society that fails to offer any hope.

2.3 [Fact and Observation] The Disconnect in Communication Told by SMS History

The text message (SMS) history left on her smartphone serves as primary source material recording the process of family breakdown and the dysfunction of interpersonal relationships .

1. Exchanges with her mother, Joyce Price:

   • [Fact] The messages from Joyce are exhausted. Pleas and reprimands line up, such as “Chloe, will you be home by curfew?”, “Again, Chloe?”, “I am at my wit’s end with you,” and “David is trying his best in his own way” . In response, Chloe coldly pushes her away, saying, “He’s just a tool,” and “I’m not going to play along with his petty power trips” .

   • [Observation] Joyce works tirelessly at the diner to make a living and sought family stability in her new partner, David Madsen. However, to Chloe, David’s existence is nothing but an invader trampling over the sanctuary that is the “memory of her father, William.” Chloe’s rebellion is not merely a rebellious phase, but a defensive battle to protect her father’s memory.

2. Exchanges with her stepfather, David Madsen:

   • [Fact] David sends an extremely businesslike and frigid message saying, “Chloe this is David” .

   • [Observation] The “discipline” and “surveillance” brought in by the ex-military David decisively conflict with Chloe’s spirit, which seeks freedom and the acceptance of pain. This businesslike text proves that absolutely no emotional connection as a family has been built between the two.

3. Exchanges with Frank Bowers:

   • [Fact] To the dealer Frank, Chloe demands, “Hold onto it (the product) until tomorrow,” accumulating debt .

   • [Observation] A structure of dependency can be confirmed, where she, having no place to belong at home, slips into seeking a place in the dangerous underground realm.

4. Exchanges with Rachel Amber:

   • [Fact] While there are intimate exchanges in the texts from Rachel Amber, such as “Thanks for hanging out with me yesterday,” there is also a nightmarish, surreal message that reads, “Chloe? We need to talk… I’ve been dead for millions of years” .

   • [Observation] Rachel was the only light for Chloe, but this ominous text serves as a literary foreshadowing, implying that the existence of Rachel herself is essentially an elusive, ghost-like presence, and that Chloe’s salvation is temporary and heading towards a ruinous end.

3. Deconstruction and Reconstruction of the Sanctuary - Spatial Theory of Chloe’s Room and the Junkyard

What embodies Chloe’s inner self as physical spaces are her “own room” and the abandoned shack in her hideout, the “American Rust Junkyard.” In these spaces, her anger, loneliness, and secret cravings are scattered innumerably in the form of graffiti, posters, and the arrangement of objects.

3.1 [Fact] Traces of a Deconstructed Past

There is a clear intention in the structure of Chloe’s room and the arrangement of objects.

• A large CRT television is placed in the room, which was once in the living room .

• On a high shelf above the closet, a snow globe and past report cards (such as GPA records) are shoved away as if hidden .

• A poster of “The Last Unicorn” is pinned to the wall, and depending on the player’s choice, it can be torn down to spray-paint graffiti underneath .

• An American flag is hung “upside down” in the room .

• A toy sword used for playing pirates is left behind .

3.2 [Observation] The Cry of Existence Through Space

From the arrangement of these items, Chloe’s psychological state can be deeply deciphered. With her father dead and the foreign entity David coming to dominate the living room, Chloe dragged the television—a symbol of family harmony—into her own room and closed the door to the outside world. She hides the snow globe, a symbol of happy past memories, and the report cards from when she was once an excellent student in places out of reach because touching them feels like a denial of her current self, which is painful .

The act of tearing down the unicorn poster, a symbol of innocent childhood, and drawing destructive graffiti there is a ritual of parting with innocence . The upside-down flag is a strong antithesis to David’s militaristic and patriarchal values; it is a sign of protest showing despair towards the nation and authority, while simultaneously implying that her own world has been “turned upside down (gone mad)” . And the toy pirate sword proves that beneath her tough armor, the imaginative and pure child of the past still holds her breath .

3.3 [Fact and Observation] “Hole to another universe” - The Desire to Escape to Another Dimension

The graffiti reading “Hole to another universe,” drawn all over Arcadia Bay—in Chloe’s room, the junkyard, the parking lot of the Two Whales Diner, and the girls’ bathroom at Blackwell Academy—is an extremely important symbol that pierces through the theme of this work .

These words are not mere street vandalism. Because the “reality right here and now” is unbearably painful, it is Chloe’s earnest prayer to literally escape to “another universe (a world where William is alive and Max never left).” The simple round line drawing of a hole on the wall is her existential cry, attempting to escape, if only in spirit, from Arcadia Bay, from which physical escape is impossible .

Considering that Max later awakens the ability to rewind time (leaping to another timeline) and actually guides Chloe to “another universe,” this graffiti also plays the role of a prophecy of Philosophical determinism . However, as for Chloe’s own psychology at the time of writing, it is nothing but an ultimate rejection of her own circumstances.

3.4 [Fact and Observation] The Erasure of “Max was here” and the Visualization of Abandonment Trauma

The abandoned shack in the junkyard was a shelter for Chloe, left behind at the end of the world. [Fact] When Max was once in Arcadia Bay, the words “Max was here” and emojis symbolizing Max were drawn on the wall with black spray paint . However, in the subsequent timeline, “NO X EMOJI!” is violently scribbled over it with blue spray paint, and Max’s name and traces of her existence are crossed out with an X .

[Observation] This act of “erasure” is the psychological process of “denial and destruction” towards an attachment figure . Initially, Chloe might have clung to the phantom of Max, perhaps even adding Max’s emojis to the wall herself. However, faced with the reality of emails that never arrive and a phone that never rings, when the despair of “she is no longer here” and “I have been abandoned” reached a critical point, Chloe could only maintain herself by destroying the object of her attachment. Physically erasing the traces of her best friend from a place of memories was a painful ritual to sever her attachment to the past and form a solid shell for self-defense.

4. Iconology of Chaos and Rebirth - Symbolism of Tattoos and Animals

The large tattoo carved on Chloe’s right arm is an extremely important text for deciphering her identity, mental history, and the philosophy flowing at the root of this work .

4.1 [Fact] Components of the Tattoo and [Observation] Their Semantics

In that sleeve-style design, the following motifs are intricately intertwined .

1. Blue Butterflies and Chrysalis: The Blue Butterfly fluttering at the top of the tattoo is a blatant symbol of the “Butterfly Effect (Chaos Theory),” meaning that a minute change brings about a massive turn of fate. Also, the emergence from a chrysalis is a metaphor for mental and physical “Transformation,” representing Chloe’s own desire to break free from being a powerless girl .

2. Skull: The golden skull sitting at the center of her arm is a symbol of “Memento Mori (remember that you must die).” It directly represents Chloe’s mental state, haunted by the concept of death due to the unreasonable death of her father, William, and constantly living side by side with the fear of loss .

3. Hibiscus and Thorns: The red hibiscus flowers surrounding the skull signify “delicate beauty” and being “consumed by love,” but at the same time, sharp thorns are entwined around them . This is the very embodiment of Chloe’s contradictory defense mechanism, where she fiercely seeks love and validation from others, yet attacks and hurts those who carelessly approach her.

The collection of these motifs embodies the classical view of life and death in art history, “Et in Arcadia ego (Even in Arcadia, there am I)” . Chloe has carved into her own flesh the cruel truth that even in a utopia (the beautiful seaside town of Arcadia Bay), death is inescapable.

4.2 [Fact and Observation] The Butterfly and the Raven as Spirit Animals

In the work, characters are assigned a Spirit Animal that symbolizes them. Regarding Chloe’s Spirit Animal, it is a point of divided speculation even among fans, but primarily a “Butterfly,” a “Blue Jay,” and a “Raven” appear around her .

The Blue Butterfly is an entity present at the moment of her death and is considered a symbol bringing change and joy, but it can also be said to symbolize Chloe’s original inner elegance and joy (her before the accident) . On the other hand, the Raven that follows her around in Life is Strange: Before the Storm is a symbol of death and rebirth, or a messenger from the otherworld, functioning as a projection of the soul of her late father William, or Rachel Amber who meets a tragic fate, guiding Chloe and sometimes issuing warnings .

4.3 [Fact and Observation] The Growth Signified by the “Cover-up” of the Tattoo

What is noteworthy is that in the later story (the timeline of Life is Strange 2), Chloe has covered up the tattoo on her right arm with a design of a massive black tornado .

The “skull (shadow of death)” and “thorns (defense mechanism)” that were once on her arm have vanished, and the tornado, the symbol of that tragedy that struck Arcadia Bay, is carved in their place. As co-game director Michel Koch suggests, this is a “breakaway from being bound by the pain of the past” and a “cenotaph to never forget the events and sacrifices that occurred in the town” . The very act of covering up the tattoo proves the mental milestone she has reached, discarding her attachment to the past, overcoming her self-destructive impulses, and growing into an adult in the truest sense .

5. The “Unspeakable Cry” Spoken for by Indie Folk

What determines the emotional presentation of this work is the indie folk/rock soundtrack based on acoustic guitars. In understanding the depths of Chloe’s psychology, these songs playing on the CD player in her room or at the junkyard completely transcend the realm of mere background music (BGM) and function as the “monologue of her soul” .

5.1 [Fact and Observation] Fear of Self-Destruction and Confession by Daughter

The songs written specifically for the prequel of this work by the British indie folk band Daughter are a direct verbalization of Chloe’s internalized sorrow . In particular, the lyrics of “A Hole in the Earth,” which plays during the ending and other scenes, depict Chloe’s fundamental pain almost too cruelly .

I have many destructive qualities. Friend make sense of me… Your father’s a liar while my father’s lying down / In a hole in the earth there / And I’m scared I’ll forget him.

The “Destructive qualities” seen in these lyrics is Chloe’s cold-hearted self-awareness that she cannot help but hurt those around her with her own anger. And the fear that the memory of her “father lying down in a hole in the earth (= William buried in his grave)” will fade over time—this is the true identity of the “anger” Chloe possesses . The reason she is constantly irritated and continues to cause problems is due to an unconscious obsession that if she accepts a peaceful daily life, the tragedy of her father’s death will weather away, leading to a “second death.” She struggles to keep her own emotions in a state of extreme chaos in order to keep her father alive forever.

Also, the song “Burn It Down” is a metaphor for her destructive impulses . Behind the intense passion to burn everything down lies the overwhelming weight of a reality she can do nothing about, and the resistance of a fragile soul trying not to be crushed by it.

5.2 [Fact and Observation] Speedy Ortiz and the Affinity with “Death”

Speedy Ortiz’s “No Below,” playing in Chloe’s room just after she wakes up, is also a song of loneliness, regret, and temporary salvation .

And though I once said I was better off just being dead, without my old friend. You didn’t know me when you were a kid / In trouble at school, alone at lunch again.

This phrase expresses Chloe’s “worthlessness of survival in a world where she lost her best friend Max,” the unbridgeable distance towards the new existence of Rachel, implying “you don’t know my worst scars from the past,” and simultaneously, gratitude for still sharing the present with her . The fingerpicking of the acoustic guitar and the lo-fi, gritty vocals are the very sighs leaking from the depths of Chloe’s lungs as she smokes a cigarette under a cloudy sky. For her, music was a mental shelter where she could uniquely share the pain that neither her family nor her school teachers understood .

The table below is an integration of the major songs surrounding Chloe and their psychological functions.

6. The Cruel Consequence of Chaos Theory - The Existence Illuminated by “Wheelchair Chloe”

What most vividly and cruelly highlights the fatalistic tragedy of the existence of Chloe Price is the presence of the “Alternate Timeline” born in the main story (Episodes 3-4) when Max alters the past through a photo, avoiding William’s death .

6.1 [Fact] The Altered Past and the Reality of Quadriplegia

In the timeline where her father is alive, Chloe has not become a delinquent girl. She has no blue hair or tattoos, does not smoke weed, is friendly with members of the Vortex Club, and has grown into a gentle and intelligent girl enveloped in her parents’ love . However, as the price for this, she was involved in a traffic accident at the age of 16 in the car gifted by William (the very car William himself drove and died in, in the original timeline), and lives a wheelchair-bound life as a Quadriplegic, completely paralyzed from the neck down . Suffering from respiratory complications (an implication of ARDS: Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome), she spends her days in bed, frightened by the shadow of death .

6.2 [Observation] Ableism and Laser-Guided Karma

The comparison of these two timelines highlights the intense irony woven into Chloe’s character design.

Chloe in the original timeline (the blue-haired delinquent) is physically extremely healthy. However, she blatantly parks her truck in a handicapped parking space and casually suggests stealing cash from the school’s handicap fund, displaying an indifferent and casual Ableist attitude towards disabilities and the access rights of the vulnerable . In contrast, the wheelchair-bound Chloe in the alternate timeline faces the desperate reality of being forced to drop out and transfer schools precisely because of the “lack of barrier-free facilities at Blackwell Academy (such as the lack of wheelchair ramps)” .

In some interpretations, there is a view that the fate of the wheelchair was given as “laser-guided karma (karmic retribution)” for the original Chloe’s irreverent attitude . However, from a more existentialist perspective, this is not karma, but proof of the “cruel equivalent exchange of causality” brought about by the Butterfly Effect (Chaos Theory).

6.3 [Observation] The Law of Conservation of Pain and the Gravity of the Multiverse

By Max rewriting history, the tragedy of William’s death was erased. However, the universe (fate) demanded a massive “settlement of pain” in its place, from none other than Chloe’s own flesh .

To lose her father, have her mind completely paralyzed, and hate the world (the original timeline).

To save her father, have her body completely paralyzed, and wander the abyss of death (the alternate timeline).

In either universe, Chloe Price stands at a “singularity of fate” where the possibilities of her life are absurdly stripped away at a young age. This fact suggests a despairing Philosophical determinism (the law of conservation of pain) that “the total amount of loss and suffering Chloe must bear is constant in any dimension” . The anger Chloe emitted in the original timeline, and the desire to escape scrawled as “Hole to another universe” in her room, were instinctive voices of protest against this very unreasonable structure of the universe. And the scene where the alternate timeline Chloe pleads with Max to end her life is the philosophical pinnacle of this work, showing that no matter which universe one escapes to, one cannot flee from the agony of existence .

Conclusion: The Cry and Salvation of a Girl Trapped in Amber

The character Chloe Price contains ample room to be criticized as a “selfish and toxic person” if one only captures her superficial words and actions . Her demands on others are excessive, she sometimes puts her best friend in danger, and she drags those around her around with selfish logic.

However, as comprehensively elucidated in this report, when peeling back the multiple layers that form her backbone—the “primal experience of William’s death and Max’s departure,” the “BPD-like defense mechanisms due to abandonment trauma,” and the “stagnant social structure of Arcadia Bay”—what comes into view is the figure of a scarred, defenseless child who craves love more purely than anyone else, trembling in fear of losing it again .

Her language, as desolate as scrap wood exposed to the sea breeze; the tattoo of death and rebirth covering her arm to intimidate others; the spray paint marks erasing the traces of her best friend from the wall—all of these were desperate survival strategies to “avoid getting hurt any further” and to “survive.” She had been continuously struggling inside an amber where time had stopped on that autumn day in 2008, the day of her father’s funeral.

The sorrowful guitar tones of indie folk and her fragile inner self resonate perfectly. When faced with irresistible loss and the violence of fate, how else is a person supposed to warm that cold world other than by burning themselves with the flame called anger (Burn It Down)? That “anger” deeply carved into her backbone is, paradoxically, the proof of her vitality—that she loved the world more than anyone else and tried to resist despair.

Chloe Price is not merely a victim trampled by the massive storm of fate. Embodying that pain and anger with her entire being, she is the most beautiful and sorrowful rebel of Arcadia Bay, thrusting questions of existence into the hearts of the players.