Louise Louise Angelou Analysis

First, the author alludes to the theme with simple imagery. Louise looks out the window and sees a beautiful spring scene, with merchants and peddlers working hard, and wildlife blooming and growing. She focuses on the “patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds” as she reminisces on her husband’s life. The focus on the blue patches rather than the clouds shows that Louise is being positive and looking on the lighter side of things. Looking at a better side is how one can come to find gain in loss, which Louise soon does.

As Louise looked out of that window, she slowly chanted “free, free, free,” showing her realization that her husband couldn’t lead her life anymore. She decides that “she would live for herself” after her
husband’s death. This is the most obvious point where the theme is visible, because the main character has an experience showing it. When Louise’s husband died, she lost him, but transformed that into a gain for the foretold future.

As the story nears to a close, Louise goes into a frenzy of jubilation and joy, “drinking in a very elixir of life.” She let’s her happiness overcome her to the highest level, walking “like a goddess of Victory” as she heads downstairs, only to die before her husband’s eyes from “joy that kills.” In the end, her joy from her predicted gain is so strong that it envelops her into a growing desire to live that life, culminating in a heart attack. This is the author, Kate Chopin, showing once again, to show that loss can metamorphose into extreme gain.