Locating Five Stages of Grief of Dr. Kalanithi

A Textual Analysis of When Air Becomes Breath

Abstract

This study takes place in the realm of psychological literature. It analyzes the autobiography of American Dr. Paul Kalanithi, When Air Biomes Breath. The story revolves around Dr. Kalanithi’s life being a patient of lung cancer at the last stage, IV. The book is marvelous and incredible, life-affirming meditation from this remarkable man, on the subject of difficulty of confronting mortality and the bond between doctor and patient. This is a memoir about his life and disease, combating metastatic lung cancer. He shares grief, suffering, turmoil and psychological trauma and its balance point in the book. Similarly, the researchers have inspected the stages of grief Dr. suffered from. For this, Textual Analysis of the book is conducted through Kubler-Ross Model of grief as a theoretical framework. The study is designed descriptively. The selected excerpts from the story are analyzed to reach the research question. The findings of the study reveal that Dr. Kalanithi had deeply suffered from five stages of grief as proposed by Ross, but his circle of grief goes in contrast. He randomly accepted, rejected, became angry and denied, and again accepted this turmoil. Relatively, this study is helpful for understanding the model and the storyline of Dr. Kalanithi in the realm of psychological literature.