The Fountains of Silence: A Novel

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“The Fountains of Silence Gallery”

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of characterization and theme in Fountains of Silence by creating a gallery of Estampa Popular art “curated” by four of the novel’s main characters.

In Fountains of Silence, Daniel’s photography is one means of resistance against Franco’s oppression, and Ana finds a kind of emotional and spiritual relief in the paintings of Joaquín Sorollo. Historically, art has had an important role in fighting oppression—and this was also true in Spain during Franco’s regime. In this activity, you will learn about the artists of the Estampa Popular movement and create a collection of their work that reflects the personalities and beliefs of four characters from Fountains of Silence.

Choose the Art

• Do some online research into the artistic movement called Estampa Popular.
• Choose four of the following characters:

o Daniel

o Ana

o Rafa

o Julia

o Puri

o Fuga

o Ben

o Lorenza

• From the Estampa Popular works you have researched, choose one piece of art for each of these four characters, as if these characters are curating their own gallery show of Estampa Popular artists. Your goal is to choose a work that reflects each character’s personality and their perspective on Franco and how to deal with his regime.
• You may choose any works from this movement that are appropriate for display in your classroom.

Create a Gallery

• Print out images of the four works you have chosen.
• For each image, write an explanatory paragraph telling which character “chose” the work. Provide evidence from Fountains of Silence that characterizes this person and demonstrates their perspective on the Franco regime. Explain clearly how this evidence connects the character with the work of art you chose for the character.
• Place your explanatory paragraphs on the backs of the art, not on the front—your classmates should not be able to see these when the work is posted.

Share and Review

• Post your four chosen works in the area designated by your instructor.
• Next to each piece of art, place a blank sheet of paper.
• Your instructor will give you a time limit for viewing others’ chosen works. You should use this entire time to view the works and, on the blank sheets of paper posted next to each work, write one sentence about which character you think “chose” each work, and why.

Teaching Suggestion: Students will need access to the Internet in order to complete this assignment. If printing four pages each will be a logistical problem, you might set up an online gallery space where students can post their work and comment on one another’s work. In this case, you will also need to offer them instructions about where their explanatory paragraphs should be turned in and how to make it clear which paragraph goes with which artwork. You can offer as little as a few minutes or as long as half an hour or so for students to review one another’s work. If you offer just a few minutes, students will not be able to view and comment on as many works, so you might want to establish guidelines so that everyone gets roughly the same amount of feedback. For instance, you might tell students that once a work has five comments, it is “full,” and they should choose a different one to comment on. If you wish, you can ask students to initial their comments to increase their sense of accountability.

Differentiation Suggestion: English language learners, students with dyslexia, and those with attentional and executive function differences may struggle to gather the evidence required to write their explanatory paragraphs. These students may benefit from working with a partner or in small groups. Students with visual impairments may not be able to complete this activity as written. You might instead ask these students to choose four characters from the novel and write a paragraph for each, explaining the character’s perspective on Franco’s dictatorship and how best to respond to it.