How it Started..

 In " It's Kind of a Funny Story" Craig Gilner is a teenager who lives in Manhattan, New York. Often Craig goes to a therapist for his depression. During one session, it is brought up that he started feeling depressed after middle school, going into high school. It all started because he was stressed to get a good job so he could have money and succeed at life. However, getting a good job meant getting accepted into a great college. Which would only happen if he got into a good high school. In my opinion, it is really easy to understand what Craig is going through. At the age I am at the future is always on my mind. At school it's always do this, it will look good when you apply for college, and then you will be successful. Every family gathering it's the same question over and over again. What do you want to be? What college do you want to go to? Basically, I find Craig's stress relatable. Craig was going through all of this but fortunately, he got accepted into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School. Passing with a perfect score, 800 out of 800. However, upon studying to pass the entry test, he stopped hanging out with his friends. The only 2 friends he had to begin with, stopped hanging out with Craig because he started carrying flash cards around. This was only the beginning of his stress. Craig can't eat and starts stress vomiting because of the pressure and work piled on him. Going to each class made him realize that a 800 out of 800 wasn't extraordinary. The majority of the kids got a perfect score. On top of this, the great high school Craig got accepted in to makes him feel inadequate. On page 96, Craig says " I wasn't gifted. Mom was wrong. I was just smart and I worked hard.  I had fooled myself into thinking that was something important to the rest of the world. Other people were complicit in this ruse. Nobody has told me I was common. That's not to say I did terrible in high school-I got 93's. That looked good to my parents. Problem is in the real world, 93 is the crap grade; colleges know what it means- you do just well enough to stay in the 90's. You're average. There are a lot of you. You aren't going over the top; if you're not doing any extracurricular you're done... with 93's your freshman year you're going to have a lot of dead weight." Another example is on page 98, in Craig's Wall Street Class some guy from Bear Stearns visited them. The guy asked the class how many of them were taking computer science. Everyone but Craig and another girl who didn't speak English raised their hands. The guy from Bear Stearns replied, " Great excellent, you other people are out of a job!" Craigs situation reminds me of a song by Muse called Psycho.

                                          EXPLICIT CONTENT

           

The lyrics to this song directly apply to what Craig is going through. In the video a man is yelling at another man like they would in the army. The man is being yelled at to obey the orders. Which is very similar to what Craig experiences in this book. Throughout the story, he often refers to the man in his head or stomach giving him orders to do stuff like eat. In this video, the man is screaming stuff like " Your ass belongs to me now! Are you a human drone? Are you a killing machine? I'm in control motherf**ker, do you understand?" Replying with "Aye Sir!" every time. Suggesting that he is succumbing to the hierarchy and lets it engulf him. Just like how the stress and depression engulfs Craig's daily activities. Noticing that Craig has all this stress and pressure in his life it makes it easier to relate to his problems. Is it easy for you to relate to what Craig is going through? Do you think there is a solution to help Craig?