Mental Health
Although parts of the book are darkly humorous, as the title suggests, Ned Vizzini’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story is ultimately a realistic, grounded portrayal of life inside a psychiatric hospital. At the beginning of the story, narrator Craig doesn’t understand why he often feels bad and unlike the other kids around him. However, with the help of medical professionals, fellow patients, and his friends and family, Craig begins to get a better idea…
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Art and Self-Discovery
In It’s Kind of a Funny Story, one of the main ways that narrator Craig learns to better understand his own mental health is through art. Craig has been interested in drawing maps from a young age, but it’s only when he ends up in Joanie’s arts and crafts class at a psychiatric hospital that he starts drawing them again with new, directed purpose. Craig’s maps are based on the human brain, and…
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Peer Pressure vs. Self-Empowerment
Over the course of It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Craig learns that many of his mental health struggles come from his new high school and the pressure to fit in, whether it’s from his teachers and the work they assign or even from his own friends. Craig begins the novel with low self-esteem. He’s constantly comparing himself to people like his friend Aaron. Aaron seems to be more successful than Craig in…
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Friendship and Romance
At the beginning of It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Craig believes that he is someone who struggles to make friends and form romantic relationships. Over the course of several days in an adult psychiatric hospital, however, Craig learns that his fears about new relationships are based on low self-esteem and that all sorts of people are willing to form relationships with him. Within moments of arriving, Craig meets people like Bobby, Johnny…
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