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 every aspect, getting into a prestigious high school with little studying, winning over Nia as a girlfriend, and always partying and smoking pot. Craig feels pressured to live the same kind of life as people like Aaron, but he realizes that even if he tries his hardest, he might never be like Aaron.
Even after Craig begins to improve his mental health at the adult psychiatric hospital, school remains his one “Tentacle” that threatens to drag him back down into a dark mental place. Craig dreads having to answer voicemails or emails about school, and when the principal of his high school calls, Craig hangs up out of fear that the principal has called to expel him. As Dr. Minerva helps Craig to understand, Craig’s fears of school are in some ways exaggerated and more a reflection of Craig’s perceived anxieties than of anything that poses a genuine threat or conflict to him in reality (the principal, for instance, only called to wish Craig well). But Dr. Minerva also shows Craig that he has the power to recognize and do something about many of his fears. For instance, if school continues to be a source of fear and anxiety for him, he might consider transferring to a different school. By the end of his stay at the hospital, Craig has learned that he doesn’t have to mold himself to fit into the environment around him. Instead, he can play an active role in determining where in life he wants to go. It’s Kind of a Funny Story shows the heavy toll that school and the pressure to fit in can take on a teenager’s mental health, but it also offers hope that sometimes people can change the things they’re unhappy about rather than always conforming to peer pressure because they feel as though their problems are beyond their control.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Peer Pressure vs. Self-Empowerment ThemeTracker
Peer Pressure vs. Self-Empowerment Quotes in It’s Kind of a Funny Story
I had a sudden urge to walk out over the trussing and lean over the water, to declare myself to the world. Once it came into my head, I couldn’t push it away.
“He’s always talking about himself and his problems. Like you. You’re both self-centered. Only, you have a low opinion of yourself, so it’s tolerable. He has a really high opinion of himself. It’s a pain.”
“You want my girl, dude. You’ve wanted her for like two years. You’re mad that you didn’t get her, and now you’ve decided to turn being mad into being depressed, and now you’re off somewhere, probably getting turned into somebody’s bitch, trying to play the pity card to get her to end up with you … And I call you as a friend to try and lighten your mood and you hit me with all of this crap? Who do you think you are?”
“I have to have surgery to clear them up. You think I should?”
“No. Why hide what you’ve been through?”
“I don’t know if that’s really a question. It’s too obvious. Wouldn’t I be happier without scars?”
“I don’t know. It’s tough to tell what would make you happy. I thought I’d be happier in a really tough high school, and I ended up here.”
“Holy crap!” I say, and I hang up.
The phone starts ringing again. I stand by it and ignore it, explaining to Armelio and everyone else who passes that it’s for me but that I can’t answer.
“I’m going to throw a wild notion at you.” Dr. Minerva leans back, then forward. “Have you ever thought about going to a different school?”
I’m not better, you know. The weight hasn’t left my head. I feel how easily I could fall back into it, lie down and not eat, waste my time and curse wasting my time, look at my homework and freak out and go and chill at Aaron’s, look at Nia and be jealous again, take the subway home and hope that it has an accident, go and get my bike and head to the Brooklyn Bridge. All of that is still there. The only thing is, it’s not an option now. It’s just… a possibility, like it’s a possibility that I could turn to dust in the next instant and be disseminated throughout the universe as an omniscient consciousness. It’s not a very likely possibility.
So now live for real, Craig. Live. Live. Live. Live.
Live.
