When breath becomes air

I heard about Paul Kalanithi's book, When Breath Becomes Air, long before I actually read it. I knew that Bill Gates and Anne Patchett both raved about it, that it spent 51 weeks on the bestseller list and was a 2017 Pulitzer Prize Finalist, but I was hesitant to read the memoir about a brain surgeon who was diagnosed with lung cancer because I didn't think I could relate to it. Working at the American Lung Association and having talked to many individuals whose lives are impacted by lung cancer, I decided to finally give the book a shot. Kalanithi was 36 and nearing the end of residency as a neurosurgeon at Stanford University when he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. As a young boy, Kalanithi devoured books and had ambitions of becoming a writer, but growing up in a family of physicians, he understood medicine's pivotal role in society. In both his undergraduate and graduate studies, he took on double course loads of literature and science, paving his path to be either a writer or a doctor. Kalanithi was fascinated with the moral complexities that come with humanity and realized that as a writer he would only be a casual observer but as a physician he would be on the front lines of life and death. He decided to go to medical school and pursued neurosurgery, one of medicine's most strenuous fields. Throughout When Breath Becomes Air, Kalanithi describes the emotional turmoil doctors face as caretakers for the sick, and he grapples with his disappointment in his own ...

Paul Kalanithi was born in New York. His father was a doctor, and when he was ten years old his family (he was the middle of three brothers) moved to Kingman, Arizona. He graduated as the valedictorian of his high school and went on to graduate with a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature and a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University. He earned an M.Phil in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine from the University of Cambridge before going to medical school. He attended medical school at Yale University and graduated cum laude. While at Yale, he also met his future wife, Lucy Goddard, and the two married shortly after graduating. Post-Yale, Kalanithi returned to Stanford for his residency training in neurological surgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience. In May 2013, Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic lung cancer. After a round of successful treatment, he returned to work as a chief resident, but the following spring the disease relapsed and he underwent intensive chemotherapy. In July 2014, his daughter Cady was born, and he died the following year on March 9, 2015 at age 37. When Breath Becomes Air is Kalanithi’s only book and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography/Autobiography in 2017. When Breath Becomes Air takes place largely within the present-day, and its personal nature detaches it from most historical events. It is worth noting two ways in which Kalanithi’s story builds on historical foundations, however. Kala...

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make yourown. Written by people who wish to remainanonymous Death Paul is confronted with the fact that his death will approach quickly and is in close proximity. Death and life are two opposites, antonyms of a sort, and by giving life a chance, he simultaneously doesn’t let death win. This is one of the main points in the book, as Paul’s death never is explicitly discussed or described. Cancer Cancer on its own is one of the main points and themes in the book, as we follow a doctor turned patient on his journey as a bearer of cancer. Different points of his life are described, as he explains how the life of a patient unfolds, from the beginning when the diagnose if given till the consultation, research and treatment. Living life to its fullest potential Update this section! You can help us out by revising, improving and updating thissection. After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or providefeedback. Next Section Quotes Previous Section Glossary How To Cite https://www.gradesaver.com/when-breath-becomes-air/study-guide/themes in MLA Format Anonymous "When Breath Becomes Air Themes". GradeSaver, 6 January 2019 Web.

In a hospital room at the Stanford Medical Center, Paul Kalanithi flips through his CT scan images, which show that his lungs are filled with tumors. His wife Lucy is by his side. Paul is a neurosurgical resident in his last year of training at Stanford. He had earned the respect of his professors and had won prestigious national awards, which had led to job offers from major universities. He is looking forward to finishing the grueling demands of residency, having children, and spending more time with Lucy. But the scans, which show advanced cancer, put that future in jeopardy. Before getting the CT scan, Paul had been experiencing back pain. X-rays of Paul's back had shown no issues, but as the condition worsens, he gets X-rays of his chest. Lucy, meanwhile, has been feeling that Paul has not been confiding his worries to her, and has decided to move out for a week. After the scans come back and Paul tells Lucy that he has stage IV lung cancer, though, she vows never to leave him. Paul is admitted to the hospital, and he feels his future evaporate. In Part I of the memoir, Paul jumps back to his early life spent in Kingman, Arizona. Though his father is a doctor, as Paul prepares to go to college, he doesn't see himself as ever being a doctor. Instead, he wants to be a writer. His mother had instilled in him a love of literature, while his father, a cardiologist, had often been absent. Paul does admire the way his father earns his patients' trust and give them comfort. A...