Presentation2. Rizal and Noli Me Tangere PDF

RIZAL and NOLI ME TANGERE  Objectives: 1.Familiarize the characters, settings and plot of the Noli Me Tangere 2.Describe the context in which Rizal wrote Noli Me Tangere. 3.Evaluate how Noli Me Tangere contributed to the national consciousness of the Filipinos. Noli Me Tanger...

RIZAL and NOLI ME TANGERE  Objectives: 1.Familiarize the characters, settings and plot of the Noli Me Tangere 2.Describe the context in which Rizal wrote Noli Me Tangere. 3.Evaluate how Noli Me Tangere contributed to the national consciousness of the Filipinos. Noli Me Tangere, words was taken from the Gospel of St. John (20:17), "mean touch me not” The book contains then, things that nobody in our country has spoken of until the present. They are so delicate that they cannot be touched by anyone. With reference to myself, I have attempted to do what nobody had wished to do. I have described the social condition, the life there, our beliefs, our hopes, our desires, our complaints, our sorrows. I have unmasked hypocrisy that under the cloak of religion has impoverished and brutalized us. I have distinguished the true religion from the false, from the superstitious, from that which capitalizes the holy word in order to extract money, in order to make us believe in absurdities of which Catholicism would blush if it would know them. I have lifted the curtain in order to show what is behind the deceitful and glittering words of our government. I have told our compatriots our defects, our vices, our culpable and cowardly complacency with the miseries over there (Philippines) Rizal wrote a letter to Ferdinand Bluemetritt on March 21, 1887 ”It is the first impartial book on the life of the Tagalogs. The Filipinos will find it the history of the last ten years. I hope you will note how different my descriptions are from those other writers. The government and the friars will probably attack the work, refuting my arguments, but I trust in God of Truth and in the persons who have seen our suffering at close range. Here I answer all the false concepts which have formed against us and all the insults which have been intended to belittle us. I hope you will understand. Maximo Viola from San Miguel, Bulacan arrived in Berlin and as a friend he gladly helped Rizal with his financial problem and loaned him with the amount needed for the printing of his novel. On March 21, 1887, the printing was done and ready for distribution. Blumentritt described the work as ”written with the blood of the heart, and so the heart speaks.” Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor said that “your Noli Me Tangere will bring you an equal glory, with your modesty and your voracious and able appraisal, you have dealt a mortal blow to that old tree full of blemishes” Jose M. Cecelio saying ”it has all the qualities of a social novel, very brilliant description and style, forceful dialogue and without exaggeration, magnificent literature. He told Rizal how the novel will be read in the Philippines and with the help of Manuel Rodriguez Arias owner of Agencia Editorial. Primary school teacher and Tagalog lexicographer Pedro Serrano Laktaw wrote to Rizal about his Noli saying that, “with regret I inform you that until now the box is still in the warehouses of the customs and I believe will remain there for some days until the censor deigns to already known “Clearance. Much has been said and speculated over the intent of the book, as it reached the Philippine soil. It created unrest to people, government, and particularly to friars. The Noli’s existence made the dream of Philippine independence possible, and both friars and the civil government now, more than ever, considered Rizal as subversive (Augenbraum, 2006).  After years of study and fascination of foreign countries, Rizal decided to return home in August 1887. In his letter to Blumentritt on June 19, 1887, Rizal expressed his desire of returning home saying: “Your advice that I live in Madrid and continue to write from there is very benevolent, but I cannot accept it. I cannot endure the life in Madrid where everything is a voice in a wilderness. My parents want to see me, and I want to see them also. All my life I desire to live in my country by the side of my life. Until now I am not Europeanized like the Filipinos in Madrid; I always like to return to the country of my birth” (“Jose Rizal: Correspondence with Blumentritt, Vol 1.”,2011) His desire to return to the Philippines was prompted by the following reasons: 1.To operate his mother’s eye ailment. 2.Wanted to know the effect of the Noli Me Tangere and other writings. 3.His desire to serve his countrymen; and 4.Wanted to know why Leonor Rivera stopped writing Copies of the Noli Me Tangere had arrived in the Philippines before his arrival, Filipinos and Spaniards in the Island were able to read the book, particularly the friars who were angry at the content of the novel which portrayed them as villains. Rizal received a letter from Governor-General Terrero requesting him to visit Malacañang, for the governor wanted to know whether his novel contained subversive ideas. During the meeting with Terrero, Rizal explained his novel merely exposes the true picture about the conditions in the Philippines. The governor knew that Rizal’s enemies may endanger his life, he sent a bodyguard named Lieutenant Jose Taviel de Andrade to watch over him whom Rizal described as a cultured and educated lieutenant of the civil guard (”Jose Rizal: Correspondence with Blumentritt, vol 1”, 2011). Controversy surrounding the Noli and the danger of possessing the novel spread throughout the countryside. Friars preached against the novel and clamored for harsh measures against people caught reading the novel and its author. Priests such as Fr. Font and Fr. Jose Rodriguez published a series of pamphlets against Rizal’s novel. An unexpected defense of the Noli came from a Filipino Catholic priest-scholar, a Manila Cathedral theologian named Fr. Vicente Garcia, wrote the following: 1. Rizal cannot be ignorant, for he graduated from a Spanish university; 2. The novel was an attack on the immoral and corrupt practices of the friars and of ficials; 3. Since some friars and of ficials were reading the novel, therefore they were also committing a mortal sin (“Jose Rizal: Correspondence with Fellow Reformists”, 2011). The Story began with a gathering at Don Santiago de los Santos (known as Captain Santiago), at his house on Analogue Street as a welcome party for the homecoming of Crisostomo Ibarra after Seven Years of Studies in Europe. Crisostomo, son of wealthy landlord was betrothed from early youth to Maria Clara. His presence to the gathering was favored by many except for Padre Damaso, who sarcastically entertained his travel abroad. As the young man headed toward La Plaza de Binondo, he was approached by Señor Guevarra. The lieutenant told him about the sad death of his father Don Rafael Ibarra, because of helping a boy who was being punished by a tax collector by accidentally pushing the tax collector whose head hardly hit on the stone. Upon hearing the fate of his father, Crisostomo was shocked and hurt, led him to investigate and confront Padre Salvi who cowardly told the young man that it was all the doings of Padre Damaso, the former parish priest of San Diego and Maria Clara’s biological father. Aside from the tragic events in the coming home of Ibarra, the novel also talked about the meeting of Crisostomo and Don Anastasio (Pilosopo Tasio), whose characteristics may be judged by an ordinary person as lunatic because of his odd ideas and the strange manner of dealing with people. The odd old man was a former philosophy student, feared by his mother to be subversive and that such knowledge would lead his son to leave his faith, so he was offered the choice of becoming a priest or leaving his philosophy studies, which he chose the latter. Another affecting part in the story is the fate of Sisa, who because of love for her family became insane, as hopes gone and abandoned. She wandered the whole town in search for her son’s Crispin and Basilio, who both disappeared without comprehending what really happened to her sons. The novel ended with an epilogue that talked about some misfortunes that struck to some characters. Maria Clara decided to enter a convent, despite impending arrange marriage to Linares by Padre Damaso and one night killed herself. Capatain Tiago fell into depression and began to smoke opium and cockfighting. Doña Victorina added the habit of wanting to drive her own coach horses. Linares died of dysentery. Padre Damaso was assigned to a distant province and the following day he was found dead. Despite unpleasant circumstances, Rizal managed to contribute service towards members of his community. He established a clinic in Calamba, and his first patient was his mother, he carefully treated his mother’s eye ailment which was considered a miracle and people flocked to his clinic. Eventually, Rizal became a sensation and people from neighboring towns visited him, and earned the name “Doctor Uliman”, aside from the clinic, he also keep himself busy by engaging his townmates in sports. He built a gymnasium, hoping to discourage them from going to cockpit or sitting down gambling.