LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in It’s Kind of a Funny Story, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Mental Health
Art and Self-Discovery
Peer Pressure vs. Self-Empowerment
Friendship and Romance
Summary
Analysis
Craig recalls being four years old and living in a small Manhattan apartment with Mom and Dad. He was obsessed with maps of Manhattan and used to try to draw them himself, getting frustrated whenever he failed. In the present, Craig tells Dr. Minerva that he wanted to be a mapmaker.
For Craig, the maps represent a happier and simpler time, back before he started to experience symptoms of depression. Craig realizes that part of dealing with his problems as a teenage will involve looking back to the things that made him happy in the past.