Breath Symbol Analysis

In When Breath Becomes Air, breath stands in for life. The “breath” of the title is derived from the poem that becomes the memoir’s epigraph: “Caelia 83,” by Baron Brooke Fulke Greville. The poem reads, “You that seek what life is in death, / Now find it air that once was breath.” The difference between “air” and “breath” is mostly semantic: breath is simply air that had once flowed through a living human. Therefore, the moment in which breath becomes air describes the act of dying, with breath representing life. Using breath as a stand-in for life is apt for the memoir because breathing is automatic, just as the way people treat their time on earth is often automatic. People don’t often think about their remaining time or whether they have had meaningful lives until they truly confront their mortality, as Paul does. Additionally, Paul is dying from stage IV lung cancer, and in his final months his breath becomes labored and eventually he must use a BiPAP machine, a breathing support system. Paul decides he would rather take the mask off and spend time with his infant daughter Cady, instead of prolonging an existence tied to machines. Breath literally becomes the crux of his life, and without it, he feels he does not possess the hope of more meaningful time on earth.