When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air

• Genre: Nonfiction; autobiography/memoir
• Originally Published: 2016
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: 2 parts, 9 chapters, prologue, and epilogue; approximately 228 pages; approximately 5 hours, 35 minutes on audio
• Central Concern: When Breath Becomes Air chronicles the life of neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi after he is diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer at the age of 36. The memoir reflects on his transformation from a medical student to a neurosurgeon dealing with life’s fragility to a patient grappling with his own mortality. Kalanithi shares his insights on the relationship between doctor and patient, the challenges of facing death, and what makes life meaningful. The narrative explores identity, the human condition, and what it means to live a meaningful life.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Discussions of terminal illness, death, and dying; personal and emotional reflections on mortality and the experience of facing cancer

Paul Kalanithi, Author

• Bio: Born 1977; died 2015; Indian American neurosurgeon and writer; earned degrees in English literature, human biology, and medicine from Stanford University and Cambridge University; wrote When Breath Becomes Air in the last year of his life
• Awards: Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Biography (2017)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Guide:

• The Meaning of Death
• Books and Literature
• The Patient-Doctor Dichotomy
• The Future

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Teaching Guide, students will:

• Consider the memoir’s central concern to anticipate themes.
• Study paired texts and other resources to make connections to the text’s four themes of The Meaning of Death, Books and Literature, The Patient-Doctor Dichotomy, and The Future.
• Through selected passages, analyze Kalanithi’s use of language and literary technique in communicating overall messages in When Breath Becomes Air. 
• Analyze and evaluate theme, narrative structure, point of view, and other literary elements to draw conclusions in structured essays on the topics of mortality, creating a meaningful life, acceptance, and identity.