Teaching No Exit

Instructions for You

Objective: After finishing the play, your students are probably confused by Garcin's climactic statement, "Hell is—other people!" What he's really talking about here is how he needs Inez's confirmation that he is not, in fact, a coward; how Estelle desires Garcin's affection because she needs every guy's affection; and how Inez desires Estelle. None of the three will ever get what he or she wants.

For this activity, students will draw at least six comic book panels that demonstrate the idea "Hell is—other people!" This twisted idea of hell being others lends itself perfectly to illustration. Their panels will focus on the interrelationships between Garcin, Inez, and Estelle and the vicious dynamic of their life together in Hell. Each panel should have text-based speech and/or thought bubbles, voice-over, and indications of setting and activity. As long as students aren't drawing six panels of Garcin, Estelle, and Inez sitting in Second Empire furniture and having a conversation, this activity of turning this text into illustrations requires some deep and creative thinking.

Obviously not every student is a great artist. That's okay. Remind them that they just need to make a real effort and that, yes, stick figures are okay, but they have to be good stick figures. Tell them to do a Google search of "good stick figure drawings" and there'll be a bunch of examples.

This exercise should take two class periods.

Materials Needed: Teacher-created handout with this information from ThinkIB.net, a comic book of your choice, white computer paper, drawing pencils

Step 1: Pair up students and give them a link to this website that contains the basics of comics. Focus specifically on the following terms:

• Panel
• Gutter
• Splash
• Voice-over
• Speech bubble

Obviously you'll want to go over some of the other terms, but it'll be tough to expect your English students to master "graphic weight" and "emanata." They should be able to somewhat identify the basic concepts, though.

Step 2: Project or hand out a few pages of your favorite comic book. Allow students to identify each part of the comic. Once you feel comfortable that your students have a good grasp of comic book basics, move on to Step 3.

Step 3: Pass out some plain white computer paper, leave some drawing pencils somewhere in the front of the class, and then let students get cracking. Make sure they focus on the interrelationships between Garcin, Inez, and Estelle. Remind them of the vicious circle: Garcin wants Inez's approval; Inez wants Estelle sexually; Estelle wants Garcin to desire her. You'll want to circle around the room and talk to each group about their ideas, to clarify any of the play's confusing parts, and to remind them of key flashback scenes for each character, e.g. Garcin's flashback to his and his wife's relationship and Estelle's drowning of her child. This group-by-group teaching is one of our favorite methods because we can really see who understands the text and who doesn't.

Once all students seem to have a basic understanding of what they want to focus on in the relationships and how to best turn those issues into narrated visuals, circulate and check for understanding.

You'll probably get questions like, "Can we use other parts of the play?" And the answer is: "Use whatever parts of the play you think would add to your comic." Then go outside and jump for joy because those students just made connections.

Step 4: Display at least three of the finished products. If most of the finished products are of a high quality, you might even want to hold a gallery walk and add a written component by having students write a compare/contrast essay about two of the comics that demonstrate different interpretations of the play.

Instructions for Your Students

You've just finished No Exit and Garcin's statement, "Hell is—other people!" has you scratching your head. This assignment is meant to help you figure out exactly what this statement means. We'll give you a little bit of help, too: Inez digs Estelle; Estelle digs Garcin; Garcin digs Inez's approval. (Do you even say the word "digs" anymore?)

Here's what you're going to do in class today: you're going to illustrate what Garcin means by "Hell is—other people!" You're going to do this in comic book style. You'll be drawing at least six comic book panels that'll focus on the interrelationships between Garcin, Inez, and Estelle and the vicious dynamic of their life together in Hell. Each panel should have text-based speech and/or thought bubbles, voice-over, and indications of setting and activity. (We'll go over the basics of comic book art soon enough.)

Obviously not every student is a great artist. That's okay. Just make a real effort. And, yes, stick figures are okay, but they have to be good stick figures. Just do a Google search of "good stick figure drawings" and there'll be a bunch of examples.

Step 1: Pair up with someone you trust. If you have trust issues, pair up with someone you know won't make you do all the work. But we don't want you doing this assignment alone unless you absolutely have to.

Within your pairs, you'll have to discuss the play to determine what's most interesting in the three characters' relationships and what can be best translated into visuals that you can passably draw. That's truly the purpose of this assignment. It's not how beautiful the final output is that matters here, but your ability to demonstrate your understanding of the play.

Step 2: Your teacher will give you this handout, which reviews the basics of comics. Focus specifically on the following terms:

• Panel
• Gutter
• Splash
• Voice-over
• Speech bubble

Obviously, you'll want to learn some of the other terms, but no one is expecting you to master "graphic weight" and "emanata."

Step 3: Your teacher should demonstrate these terms in action for you, and you'll get to learn something important about your teacher by seeing what comics he or she holds dear. If not, pull out your own favorite comic book. Yes, Captain Underpants is fine. And then see if you can identify the terms within your beloved comic.

Step 4: While you and your partner prepare to draw, be sure to ask your teacher questions you need clarified about the play. Before you draw a single line, make sure you know what you want to show in your comic.

Once you've agreed on the relationships from the text you're going to use, whip out those drawing materials and begin creating your comic. Be sure to represent your characters' Hell in your six panels in terms of:

• thought/speech bubbles
• voice-over
• setting and action

If you're satisfied with your ideas, politely ask your teacher to get out of the way. If you run into a roadblock while drawing though, ask your teacher for an assist.

You'll probably have questions like, "Can we use other parts of the play?" And the answer is, "Use whatever parts of the play you think would add to your comic." Then go outside and jump for joy because you just made one of those connections your teacher has been asking you to make all school year.

Step 5: Your teacher will choose some of the best comics to display somewhere in the room. Don't you want your comic displayed?