Dontnod Entertainment's Life is Strange is a thrilling video game that follows Maxine Caulfield as she moves to a new school and discovers that she can time travel. Max's close friend Chloe lost her father when she was a child, and her family had struggled ever sense. Life is Strange portrays the death as a traumatic event that permanently changed Chloe’s relationship with her mother. Chloe and Max were best friends when they were younger, but once Chloe’s father died Max moved away and they became distant. When Max discovers her powers, she turns to Chloe for help. They try to discover all they can about Max’s new powers, and quickly rekindle their friendship as they work together. If Life is Strange is misrepresenting how the death of a loved one affects families, it may be perpetuating stereotypes. Caleb Molinari will investigate how accurately Life is Strange portrays bereavement through the following research question: Does the video game Life is Strange accurately represent the trauma of losing a loved one?

            The death of a family member does not always affect every family the same way, but it does always produce a drastic change in the family’s life. According to Allison Holmes in “When a Parent Is Injured or Killed in Combat,” the death of a parent causes the surviving family members to “renegotiate family relationships.” (Holmes 147) Holmes studied how combat related injury and death impacts families. She found that when one of the parents are no longer able to take care of their responsibilities, the other family members must change their lifestyles to pick up the slack. The work that the injured or killed family member used to do must be taken on by their family. This increase in workload can be a dramatic shift from what was previously expected of each family member. If the deceased person previously had many responsibilities, the other family members may find themselves overwhelmed with new responsibilities.  

            Life is Strange did portray the lifestyle changes that occur when a family member dies. When Chloe’s father died, she and her mother had to adapt to the new expectations placed on both of them. Chloe was attending a private school, and her mother had to begin working longer hours to support her daughter. Chloe also had to help more around the house, and she became responsible for her mother’s wellbeing where her father had previously looked after them both.

            When a family member dies, there are many different ways that the family may respond. According to Colonel Stephen J. Cozza in “When a Parent Is Injured or Killed in Combat,” it is critical to understand the family’s perspective on the death in order to understand their response. (Holmes 152) If the family was prepared for the possibility of a death, such as the family of a police officer, they may be more prepared to handle the grief that follows. If the family was not prepared to lose a loved one, the sudden grief may have a more powerful effect on them. Anticipating the death gives families time to prepare themselves should the worst happen.
            Chloe’s father died in a car crash while he was on his way to the store. She believed that the death was sudden and unfair, and hated that she lost her father when she was still young. Chloe’s negative view of her father’s death may have contributed to her rebellion and rejection of familial responsibilities during her teenage years.

            One of the most important parts of life for someone who has lost a loved one is how they cope with the loss. Paul Rosenblatt, in the article “Shared Reminiscence about a Deceased Parent: Implications for Grief Education and Grief Counseling,” states that “part of coping with the loss and coming to terms with it is shared reminiscence with siblings and others about the parent who has died” (Rosenblatt 206). Rosenblatt defines reminiscence as “the recall of past experience.” He believes that most of the healing following the loss of a parent occurs among the family and friends of the bereaved. Reminiscing is one way that someone can come to terms with their loss and learn to live without their parents. It allows for those grieving to feel understood by showing others how their loss has hurt them.
            Max and Chloe share memories about Chloe’s dad because it allows Chloe to feel understood. Max knew Chloe’s father when they were both children, but she moved away shortly after he died. Max did not talk to Chloe again until the narrative begins and she moves back to her old town. Chloe did not have any other friends that knew her father, so she may have been denied the opportunity to reminisce about him. Reminiscing with Max allows Chloe to share her pain with a close friend. It allows Chloe to feel heard and validates her emotions. Reminiscing with Max allows Chloe to process her grief in a way that was impossible without a close friend.

          Children are more likely to succeed if their parents are leading happy and healthy lives.  While parents are directly responsible for their children’s wellbeing, their actions that do not directly impact their children’s lives also affect them. Dr. Mia Smith Bynum, in the article “Coping Behaviors, Parenting, and Perceptions of Children's Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Rural African American Mothers,” researched the connection between maternal coping behaviors and their children’s ability to self-regulate. (Bynum 58) Coping behaviors are defined as the behaviors that allow one to manage demands that are larger than one can accommodate. She found that mothers who have more active coping behaviors had more involved relationships with their children, and their children displayed more active coping behaviors as well. Active coping behaviors are those that “focused on problem-solving efforts to address a stressor.” (Bynum 60) The alternative type of coping behaviors are emotion-focused. These coping behaviors seek to adjust an individual to stressful situations.

          A parent’s coping behaviors are linked to the quality of their parenting. Bynum referenced a study that linked active coping behaviors to the use of parental discipline, and avoidance coping behaviors to a lack of parental discipline. This suggests that mothers who have active coping behaviors better prepare their children to face adversity.

            Parents who display active coping behaviors also teach their children through example. Children learn how to behave from their parents, so parents who practice active coping behaviors will teach their children to do the same. If a parent is unable to cope with the challenges that they face and break down, they will not be teaching their children how to effectively handle stress.  

Chloe’s mother Joyce began to rely on emotional coping methods after her husband died. Her relationship with her daughter began to deteriorate at the same time, and the two became more distant and spent less time communicating with each other. This change in behavior may have made it harder for Chloe to process her grief because she was receiving less maternal support during this time.

          Bereavement clearly challenges each family member while they are recovering, so it is natural to wonder what can be done to help recovering families. Bill Flatt suggests that grief counseling plays a major roll in recovery in his article “Factors Affecting Grief Adjustment” (Flatt 8). Flatt studied the contribution of grief counseling on a group of widows. He found that counseling was significantly related to reduced levels of grief, as well as church involvement and other activities. The widows who where involved in more groups expressed lower levels of grief.

          Flatt’s research suggests that being involved in more groups helps widows manage their grief. This may be because being involved with these groups gives widows more support networks to benefit from. Groups of close friends may provide an important support network for these people. Participating in activities may also give the widows a way to relieve stress in the months after the death.

          Joyce and Chloe did not participate in any extracurricular activities following the death. Chloe in particular was very isolated. Max was one of her only friends, and many of the other ones moved away in the following years. Once she dropped out of school, she was almost completely alone. The authorities in Chloe’s life did not attempt to get her any professional support. If they had recommended her to a counselor or helped her establish some form of support network, she may have processed her grief better.

          While it seems that children of single parent households are doomed to struggle, some studies suggest otherwise. Henry Ricciuti investigated a group of 6-7-year-old children who did not begin to perform poorly in school while living in a single parent household in the article “Single Parenthood, Achievement, and Problem Behavior in White, Black, and Hispanic Children.” He found little evidence of negative effects on their school performance later in life (Ricciuti 196). These children's success in school suggests that they were able to successfully cope with their new lifestyle. It is important to note that this study focused on a group of students in single parent households who continued to perform well in school. There are other bereaved children outside this study who did not perform well.

          This study suggests that some children are able to adapt to a single parent household. This information disagrees with what was portrayed in Life is Strange, as well as the information presented by de Lange and Dronkers, which suggests that single parent households will be less effective at raising a child.

          Further research suggests that children of double parent households do not perform better in school than children of single parent households. Robert L. Wagmiller Jr. investigated the test scores of children who had a single mother and children whose mother had remarried in his article “Does Children's Academic Achievement Improve When Single Mothers Marry?” He found that only children from more advantaged single parent families benefited from their mother’s marriage. This research suggests that the number of parents in a household is not the primary factor determining the children’s academic success. Rather, it is a combination of each parent’s efforts as well as each individual family situation that determines how successfully the child will be raised. This may reveal that some of the other sources made too many generalizations when viewing single and double parent households. It is not enough to separate families by the number of parents, but also by what each family situation is like.

          After she lost her husband, Joyce married a security guard named David. One of the main conflicts in the story is Chloe’s rebellion against David. Chloe’s family was unstable before her mother remarried. According the Wagmiller’s research, Joyce’s marriage should not have been beneficial for Chloe. After the marriage, Chloe’s performance in school continued to decline and she eventually dropped out. She resented David’s authority and fought with him often. Because of this, David may have harmed the family more than he helped them.

          The struggles portrayed in Life is Strange are experienced by people across the world. Many families experience the loss of a loved one, whether it is through death or divorce. The way Life is Strange portrays the loss of a loved one will affect how people think about loss. If the narrative is misrepresenting the reality of bereavement, it may perpetuate stereotypes and harm people who have to live with such pain daily. Such stereotypes could harm people’s self-image, as well as the way their peers interact with them.

          One way stereotypes come to exist is through oversimplification. This research has explored many facets of bereavement and revealed that it is an incredibly complex issue. Life is Strange presents many parts of this issue completely and accurately, but there is too much detail for a single game to represent. It is not entirely clear if Life is Strange is perpetuating any stereotypes, but the game has accurately presented many aspects of a single parent household. Bereavement brings more challenges than losing a family member, and each of these challenges is an opportunity for a family to grow closer or farther apart. While there are still many mysteries surrounding bereaved families, it is clear that support from close friends and family can help grieving people overcome the challenges that they face.