Social Action Reading Response

What really hard things are happening in this text? Are these things happening in the world now? Where?                
               The book Its Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini is the story of a boy in high school as he battles who is struggling with many problems as he caused by the intense pressure at his high school. There is a whirl wind of social issues in this book. I think that in this book there are some social issues  that are hard to deal with, but that are apparent in the world.

                  One social issue in this book is depression. The story surrounds the life a boy named Craig dealing with depression. The story starts with "Its so hard to talk when you want to kill yourself." pg. 3. This line is said by Craig and its the first 10 words. One interesting thing about this book is that the issue that its dealing with is very apparent, you know from the very beginning that Craig is depressed. Depression is a particularly hard issue because it is something thing that can happen to anyone, this story really captures how a happy kid could turn into someone messed up and depressed. Also, this problem doesn't have a simple answer, like one medicine that will always work, curing depression is a process that people must take on. I think that a lot have people have experienced at a close personal level, so this issue can be hard to read about. 

                 Depression is a very real in the world around us. Depression is everywhere, all over the world. For example "More than 350 million people suffer from depression globally" That is a lot of people world wide suffering from depression. Its not a disease you catch, but a state of mind that people are trapped in. The problem that a lot of depressed people face is they feel alone, in the book where Craig gets better is when he meets people with other problems. I think that unity always makes people feel better, especially when battling something as hard as depression. 

               I think that this book really does a good job of capturing the issue of depression and how hard it is for people to deal with. It goes through a step by step process of his life, how he becomes depressed, his life with depression, and his treatment. The emotional depth of this book is really amazing, and it should be considering that depression is an entirely emotional disease. I think it really teaches how wide spread depression is and how its a hard issue to deal with.