76 pages • 2 hours read
Ned VizziniIt's Kind of a Funny Story
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Tentacles and Anchors
Tentacles and Anchors are symbols that represent how Craig feels when he is anxious or rooted. As he explains to his doctor, tentacles are things like school that overwhelm Craig because of their infinite implications for his life. School “spirals out into a million different things” (14). Something as simple as getting lower than a 98.6% in a class result, in Craig’s mind, in him becoming homeless. For Craig, Anchors are “things that occupy my mind and make me feel good temporarily” (15), like riding his bike, doing something simple like flash cards.
Part of what immediately relieves Craig about Six North is that he doesn’t have to make decisions. He thinks that the “opposite of a Tentacle is a simple task, something that’s placed before you and that you do without question” (308). Anchors are constant. The routine of Six North sooths Craig. For a time, he is tempted to make the people at Six North his anchors. Dr. Minerva points out to them that “people don’t make good anchors” (309) because they change and leave. Instead, Craig learns how to make his own routine and his art/maps anchors for his life. This symbolizes Craig’s increased autonomy and self-regulation—he finds his own anchor.
Maps
In It’s Kind of a Funny Story, maps symbolize Craig’s creative interconnectedness as he begins living a life on his terms. At first, he has a breakdown when he can’t “get the land right” (23) by copying an accurate map of Manhattan. The tight constraints are impossible for him to trace, and he breaks down. When he makes up maps for himself, he is enthralled and empowered. “I could make up my own city. I could use my own streets. I could put a river where I wanted. I could put the ocean where I wanted” (27). This symbolizes Craig living life according to his terms, following his own map, instead of trying to fit into the constraints of the life mapped out for him.
When Craig gets into Executive Pre-Professional, his hobby of mapmaking is long gone. All he does is work and sit in anxiety. When Nurse Monica signs him up for arts and crafts, he rolls his eyes at first, thinking it will be frivolous. He sits, trying to decide what to draw. Importantly, he rejects the suggestions of other residents and follows his own instincts. As Joanie tries to give him advice, he is “already gone. I’ve got the river started at the top of the page, looping down to meet with a second river” (290). As he continues to draw, he thinks, “It’s all coming back to me. How long has it been since I did this? Since I was nine? How could I forget?” (291). Drawing maps is a hobby that is uniquely Craig’s. It helps him connect to his artistic gift and connect with other people. He draws maps that represent each of the residents of Six North, showing his relational gift that wasn’t being nurtured at Executive Pre-Professional. While Craig feels embarrassed drawing maps around Nia or his parents, he is comfortable with Noelle and the residents of Six North. This represents how Craig is pressured to conform and can only thrive when he lives according to his own intuition, not the life conscripted to him by others.
Privilege
In It’s Kind of a Funny of Story, the motif of privilege further develops the theme of The Impact of Mental Illness. Vizzini illustrates how everyone is going through a unique battle, regardless of whatever privileges exist on the surface. Craig comes from a comfortable background. While his parents are not extravagantly wealthy, he knows that he always has a home and supportive parents. Nonetheless, Craig has depression and anxiety. The fact that he has certain advantages and can’t identify an explicit “external” reason for his pain makes Craig feel like he doesn’t have “a justification and something that I could work on” (11). Craig feels like a “spoiled rich kid” (212) because of this, and struggles to admit that he simply suffers from a chemical imbalance and a completely justifiable response to pressure, regardless of his background. Emotional distress and mental illness do not discriminate.
While people from privileged backgrounds face anxiety, depression, and other conditions, Craig is also aware that has access to resources that others don’t. While it doesn’t help Craig to feel guilty or ignore his depression, he realizes that mental illness can have even worse implications for those without the same support and resources. When he first arrives, Bobby tells him, “Kids like you, got money, got a family, you’ll be out in a few days” (198). Craig is shocked to find out that many residents don’t want to be discharged because “getting out means going to the streets or jail” (249). This motif shows that mental illness is pervasive beyond privilege. While privilege doesn’t mean that someone doesn’t have a mental illness, it can provide them with tools and an entirely different support system.
