Conceptual metaphors of ‘death’ in Paul Kalanithi’s memoir ‘When Breath Becomes Air’

This study investigates the use of metaphor to construct the meaning of ‘death’ in Paul Kalanithi’s memoir, When Breath Becomes Air. Utilizing the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and a mixed-methods approach, this study has the following objectives: a) to pinpoint Kalanithi’s death-related metaphors in the primary authorial narrative; b) to categorize these metaphors into broad death metaphor frames and primary metaphor subtypes; c) to analyze their distribution; and d) to explore their contextual meanings within the scope of a medical literary autobiography, and the unique blending of Kalanithi’s identities as a neurosurgeon and a dying patient. Metaphors were identified using the MIPVU method and a coding framework that identified metaphor source domains and conceptual metaphor frameworks. The source domain, the lexical unit, its semantic vicinity, and pertinent conceptual metaphor literature and co-texts provided the metaphorical analysis, which identified 211 instances of death discourse metaphors, classified into five metaphor frames and ten metaphor subtypes. The most common metaphorical frame was Motion/Transition, accounting for 70 occurrences (33.2%), with death is departure and death is the end of a journey as subtypes. Agentive Personification was next, with 55 occurrences (26.0%), with death is a visitor/intruder, death is an adversary, and death is a reaper. Obscurity/Force was the third most common frame, with death is darkness and death is a natural force, with 47 occurrences (22.3%). death is the end of a play/the final act and life and death are dancers/players contribute to the Performance/Closure frame, with 26 occurrences (12.3%). Finally, the Bodily/Biomedical Failure frame, through death as a fatal mechanical breakdown, was noted 13 times (6.2%). These results show that the predominant conceptualization of death is as a transition or movement, followed by an agentive presence, an overwhelming or obscuring force, a concluding performance, and a biomedical breakdown. Furthermore, the results demonstrate how illness discourse, by its nature, blends medical discourse with personal and existential discourse and modifies conventional death metaphors.