It's Kind Of A Funny Story Analysis

What if your determination was the only thing stopping you from reaching your goals? Ned Vizzini’s novel, It’s Kind Of a Funny Story follows a teen who is so committed to doing good that he is pushed too hard and he begins to consider suicide. When Craig is at his worst point and ready to end it, he instead decides to call the suicide hotline and checks himself into the hospital. This novel touches hard on the little things in life that make Craig’s life good or bad. Since this novel is based on Vizzini’s own personal experience as a teen, it focuses on how to get through anything with the help of other people. To show how Craig’s life has made it to the point where the bad has overcome the good, Vizzini uses the words anchors and tentacles
After a really bad night, Craig decides he is going to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge but then he stumbles upon the suicide hotline number. Craig calls the suicide hotline and they talk him into going to the nearest hospital to get help, (Vizzini 145). Craig agrees to be admitted into the psychiatric floor, but since the hospital is being redone, he is admitted with the adults. While Craig is in the hospital he begins to realize that the biggest stress in his life is his new school. “I started this new school and I can’t handle it. It has gotten to a point where it’s the worst it’s ever been” (Vizzini 144). During his stay on the adult psych floor, he meets several patients that help him and soon become his friends. When Dr.Minerva asks Craig if there are any anchors in the hospital, Craig responds with “the people are anchors.” Dr. Minerva reminds Craig that people are not good anchors because they will eventually leave or change (Vizzini 308). Craig has very little stressors in the hospital because he is on a daily schedule where he has no time to sit around and over think. Craig notices he is starting to improve everyday due to the people around him and that he was able to gain stability because of a daily
Vizzini chose to write about a teenager struggling with depression because he also struggled with the same thing as a young adult. “I went through a difficult time in my life, in my early twenties, and I found myself dealing with issues of life and death. This really spoke to me, and I chose to write about those issues” (Sara 2013). Craig, who was so determined to do good in school, and was under an unbearable amount of stress checked himself into a hospital and was put on the adult psychiatric floor very similar to what happened to Vizzini when he was 23. “When he was 23, he called a suicide hotline and was admitted in the adult wing of a psychiatric hospital in Brooklyn” (Famous authors 2012). Vizzini wrote about Craig overcoming his depression, however Vizzini was not as fortunate as Craig. “Vizzini who wrote openly about his struggles with depression, took his own life Thursday in Brooklyn, New York. He was 32” (Colker 2013). As Vizzini was writing It’s Kind Of a Funny Story, he was hoping to help teenagers who were also going through a hard time. While in the hospital Craig was able to get through his depression with the help of his anchors, which could teach readers how to overcome any hard times in their