This guide provides discussion questions and topics to delve deeper into Paul Kalanithi’s profound memoir, When Breath Becomes Air. These prompts are designed to encourage thoughtful reflection and facilitate meaningful conversations about life, death, medicine, and the human condition.
-
What were your overall feelings after finishing When Breath Becomes Air? Did the book evoke feelings of sadness, inspiration, anxiety, or a sense of reduced fear surrounding mortality? How did Kalanithi’s journey resonate with your own experiences and perspectives?
-
Kalanithi explored the complex interplay between science and faith in his life and work. He wrote, “Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving, suffering, virtue. Between these core passions and scientific theory, there will always be a gap. No system of thought can contain the fullness of human experience.” Do you agree with Kalanithi’s perspective on the limitations of science in capturing the entirety of human experience?
-
How did Kalanithi’s extensive experience as a physician, particularly his training as a neurosurgeon, shape his perspective on his own illness? His statement, “why not me?” in response to his diagnosis, how did that impact you? Could you relate to his perspective? How does his medical background influence his approach to understanding his own mortality?
-
Kalanithi possessed a strong background in the humanities, including a Master’s degree in English Literature, before pursuing medicine. Do you believe this background contributed to his effectiveness as a physician? Do you think it made him a different kind of doctor? If so, in what ways? How has reading shaped your own understanding of the world and your interactions with others?
-
What are your thoughts on Kalanithi and his wife Lucy’s decision to have a child in the face of his terminal illness? When Lucy asked Paul if he worried that having a child would make his death more painful, and Paul responded, “Wouldn’t it be great if it did,” how did that strike you? Do you agree with their perspective that life should be about creating meaning, even in the face of suffering?
-
Were there any specific passages or sentences in When Breath Becomes Air that resonated with you particularly deeply or moved you emotionally? Can you share those passages and explain why they had such an impact on you?
-
Given that Kalanithi passed away before completing the book, what questions would you have liked to ask him if he were still alive today? What aspects of his experience or philosophy would you have wanted to explore further?
-
Kalanithi was committed to facing death with integrity and to demystifying it for others through his writing. Do you believe he accomplished this goal? How does When Breath Becomes Air contribute to a broader understanding of death and dying?
-
In the epilogue, Lucy Kalanithi writes, “what happened to Paul was tragic, but he was not a tragedy.” Do you share this sentiment after reading the book? How did Kalanithi’s life and work challenge your preconceived notions about tragedy and loss?
-
How did When Breath Becomes Air influence your perspectives on medical care, the patient-physician relationship, and end-of-life care? Did the book raise any ethical or moral questions about the practice of medicine?
-
Is When Breath Becomes Air a book that you anticipate continuing to reflect upon in the future? Do you feel that it has had a lasting impact on your daily life and your approach to living?
-
Lucy Kalanithi also writes that, in some ways, Paul’s illness brought them closer – that she fell even more deeply in love with the “beautiful, focused man” he became in the last year of his life. Did you find yourself understanding how that could happen? How does their relationship demonstrate the power of love and connection in the face of adversity?
