The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments

How do symbols function in this work? Why does Vlahos use symbols to communicate ideas and beliefs? What connections can you draw between symbols?

Vlahos discusses a topic that touches everyone but that many people choose to avoid. How does her book seek to shift the narrative around death, especially in the Western world?

Explore the role of religion in this text. How does Vlahos’s religion influence her work? How do her patients’ religions influence the way they die? How does religion separate people? How does it connect them?

In what ways does Vlahos’s memoir conform to or stray from the conventions of the memoir genre?

How does Vlahos employ foreshadowing in a book about a topic many people fear—namely, death?

How does Vlahos use figurative language to reflect her spiritual beliefs? Consider her use of simile, metaphor, imagery, and personification.

Choose a figure other than Vlahos to analyze. How do they change throughout the book (or the section devoted to them)? How are they changed by others?

Why does Vlahos choose to explain so much of her life in flashback? How do these flashbacks compare to the material that makes up the narrative present?