This piece is the cover of Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story. It tells the story of burnt-out teenager Craig, who checks himself into a mental health clinic after a suicide attempt. His depression was caused by the battle lost to society, as he says “Sometimes I just think depression’s one way of coping with the world. Like, some people get drunk, some people do drugs, and some people get depressed.” He finds himself placed in the adult ward due to the fact that the youth ward has been shut down. Ned, who socially isolates himself from society, finally finds comfort in others on the ward. As an adolescent, Ned was constantly comparing himself to others, ““I should be a success and I'm not and other people- younger people- are. Younger people than me are on TV and getting their lives in order. I'm still a nobody. When am I going to not be a nobody?”As a result his depression spirals out of control as he feels like society has the upper hand, not the individual. After talking to the adults on the ward, he finds that being unique is what makes life worth living. He expresses this new discovery through his art, “brain maps”, that help him understand that the obstacle he was trying to overcome could be solved through thinking differently. This novel resembles that of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, yet complicates the tension between society and the individual by illustrating that the individual can fool itself into thinking society was against them. There was nothing physically fighting Craig except for his inability to realize that his ideals would never be achieved and make him happy.

Read more about this conflict in the next exhibit.