It's Kind Of A Funny Story Analysis

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It's Kind of a Funny Story tells the coming-of-age tale about 15-year old Craig, a boy with big eyes, a hesitant smile and a diffident, sensitive demeanor. The teen is beginning to crack under the academic pressure to succeed in fields that he is not interested in at an exclusive public high school for gifted students. Although Craig is fairly intelligent, he feels out of place among the other students. The boy is in a constant state of panic about his future, which makes him prone to fits of stress vomiting. Amid these despondencies, he falls in love with his best friend Aaron's girl Nia.

Craig feels that he is at the breaking point after he dreams about taking a leap off of the Brooklyn Bridge. Therefore the anxious and depressed teen begs …show more content…

He believes that he made a mistake when he discovers that checking in is much easier than checking out. To make matters worse, the youth psychiatric ward is undergoing renovations, and he is forced to stay in the adult unit with patients who are more seriously disturbed.

The film portrays this mental hospital as a place of controlled chaos. Because of their mental instability, the patients' lives are unpredictable. Their psychiatric conditions make them incapable of fully interacting with other members of society. At the same time they are experiencing a sense of community in the hospital.

Craig interacts with a number of unique residents. First he befriends Bobby, a longtime patient and the "captain" of the floor. Although this new semi-mentor is depressed too, he takes the newcomer under his wing. Bobby urges the teen to seize the day even though has not been able to do the same with his own life. Craig develops a crush for Noelle, an artistically inclined teenager. She is prone to cutting herself. Therefore her inner wounds have become visible through scares on her face. Craig's depressed Egyptian roommate spends nearly every waking and sleeping hour curled up in …show more content…

Infatuated with the boy's dark side, the girl visits him and attempts to seduce the boy in his hospital room. But things go wrong when the teenager's Moslem roommate discovers them and panics.

Although Craig's parents are well meaning, they are not able to give him the support and sympathy he needs during their hospital visits. When they learn in family therapy sessions that their son's condition was triggered by stress, his father is unable to let go of his ambition for the boy's academic future that was one reason for his son's breakdown in the first place.

In individual and group therapy, Craig comes to understand some of the roots of his problems. He also gains perspective and gleans life lessons from other goodhearted patients. In this process the teen undergoes a journey of self-discovery that results in an almost magical transformation.

Craig discovers that he is a talented artist. When he lets his imagination loose, he creates amazing drawings. As he experiments with his natural artistic abilities and explores his true feelings, he develops a closer bond with Noelle. They race through the halls of the hospital and wind up on the roof, where they express their affection for each

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