Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University A.Y.

2013 2014 1st semester

Noli Me Tangere
(Project in Humanities 113)

Submitted by: Carreon, Ayeh Grace N. BSCE 1-B

Submitted to: Mr. Ernesto Nicdao

Noli Me Tangere

(Commonly referred to by its shortened name Noli ) is a novel written in Spanish by Filipino writer and national hero Jos Rizal, first published in 1887 in Berlin, Germany. Early English translations used titles like An Eagle Flight and The Social Cancer, but more recent translations have been published using the original Latin title. Though written in originally in Spanish, it is more commonly published and read in the Philippines in either English or Filipino. Together with its sequel (El Filibusterismo), the reading of Noli is obligatory for High School Students all throughout the archipelago. In 2006, Penguin Classics published a new translation of the Noli Me Tangere, translated by Harold Augenbraum. This makes Noli the first Philippine Classic to be circulated by the company.

I.

Short Summary of Noli Me Tangere

Having completed his studies in Europe, young Juan Crisstomo Ibarra y Magsalin came back to the Philippines after a 7-year absence. In his honor, Don Santiago de los Santos, a family friend also known as Captain Tiago, threw a get-together party, which was attended by friars and other prominent figures. One of the guests, former San Diego curate Father Dmaso Vardolagas belittled and slandered Ibarra. Ibarra brushed off the insults and took no offense; he instead politely excused himself and left the party because of an allegedly important task.The next day, Ibarra visits Mara Clara, his betrothed, the beautiful daughter of CaptainTiago and affluent resident of Binondo, Manila. Their long-standing love was clearly manifested in this meeting, and Mara Clara cannot help but reread the letters her sweetheart had written her before he went to Europe. Before Ibarra left for San Diego, Lieutenant Guevara, a guardia civil , reveals to him the incidents preceding the death of his father, Don Rafael Ibarra, a rich hacendero of the town. According to Guevara, Don Rafael was unjustly accused of being a heretic, in addition to being a filibuster an allegation brought forth by Father Dmaso because of Don Rafael's non-participation in the Sacraments, such as Confession and Mass. Father Dmaso's animosity against Ibarra's father is aggravated by another incident when Don Rafael helped out on a fight between a tax collector and a child fighting, and the former's death was blamed on him, although it was not deliberate. Suddenly, all of those who thought ill of him surfaced with additional complaints. He was imprisoned, and just when the matter was almost settled, he got sick and died in jail. Still not content with what he had done, Dmaso arranged for Don Rafael's corpse to be dug up from the Catholic church and brought to a Chinese cemetery, because he thought it inappropriate to allow a heretic a Catholic burial ground. Unfortunately, it was raining and because of the bothersome weight of the cadaver, the undertakers decided to throw the corpse into a nearby lake. Revenge was not in Ibarra's plans; instead he carried through his father's plan of puttingup a school, since he believed that education would pave the way to his country's progress (all over the novel the author refers to both Spain and the Philippines as two different countries,

which form part of a same nation or family, being Spain the mother and the Philippines the daughter). During the inauguration of the school, Ibarra would have been killed in a sabotage had Elas a mysterious man who had warned Ibarra earlier of a plot to assassinate him not saved him. Instead the hired killer met a nun fortunate incident and died. The sequence of events proved to be too traumatic for Mara Clara who got seriously ill but was luckily cured by the medicine Ibarra sent. After the inauguration, Ibarra hosted a luncheon during which Father Dmaso, gate-crashing the luncheon, again insulted him. Ibarra ignored the priest's insolence, but when the latter slandered the memory of his dead father, he was no longer able to restrain himself and lunged at Dmaso, prepared to stab him for his impudence. As a consequence, Dmaso excommunicated Ibarra, taking this opportunity to persuade the already-hesitant father of Mara Clara to forbid his daughter from marrying Ibarra. The friar wished Mara Clara to marry a Peninsular named Linares who had just arrived from Spain. With the help of the Captain-General, Ibarra's excommunication was nullified and the Archbishop decided to accept him as a member of the Church once again. But, as fate would have it, some incident of which Ibarra had known nothing about was blamed on him, and he is wrongly arrested and imprisoned. The accusation against him was then overruled because during the litigation that followed, nobody could testify that he was indeed involved. Unfortunately, his letter to Mara Clara somehow got into the hands of the jury and is manipulated such that it then became evidence against him by the parish priest, Father Salvi. While frail in appearance, Father Salvi was revealed to be the most cunning character in the novel. With Machiavellian precision, Father Salve framed Ibarr aand ruined his life just so he could stop him from marrying Maria Clara and making the latter his concubine. Meanwhile, in Capitan Tiago's residence, a party was being held to announce the upcoming wedding of Mara Clara and Linares. Ibarra, with the help of Elas, took this opportunity to escape from prison. Before leaving, Ibarra spoke to Mara Clara and accused her of betraying him, thinking that she gave the letter he wrote her to the jury. Mara Clara explained that she would never conspire against him, but that she was forced to surrender Ibarra's letter to Father Salvi, in exchange for the letters written by her mother even before she, Mara Clara, was born. The letters were from her mother, Pa Alba, to Dmaso alluding to their unborn child; and that Mara Clara was therefore not Captain Tiago's biological daughter, but Dmaso's. Afterwards, Ibarra and Elas boarded a boat and fled the place. Elas instructed Ibarra toile down and the former covered the latter with grass to conceal his presence. As luck would have it, they were spotted by their enemies. Elas, thinking he could outsmart them, jumped into the water. The guards rained shots on him, all the while not knowing that they were aiming at the wrong man. Mara Clara, thinking that Ibarra had been killed in the shooting incident, was greatly overcome with grief. Robbed of hope and severely disillusioned, she asked Father Dmaso to confine her into a nunnery. Dmaso reluctantly agreed when she threatened to take her own life, demanding, "the nunnery or death!"

Unbeknownst to her, Ibarra was still alive and able to escape. It was Elas who had taken the shots. It was Christmas Eve when Elias woke up in the forest fatally wounded, as it is here where he instructed Ibarra to meet him. Instead, Elias found the altar boy Basilio cradling his already-dead mother, Sisa. The latter lost her mind when she learned that her two sons, Crispin

and Basilio, were chased out of the convent by the sacristan mayor on suspicions of stealing sacred objects. (The truth is that, it was the sacristan mayor who stole the objects and only pinned the blame on the two boys. The said sacristan mayor actually killed Crispin while interrogating him on the supposed location of the sacred objects. It was implied that the body was never found and the incident was covered-up by the parish priest, Father Salvi).Elias helped Basilio bury his mother and while he lay dying, he instructed Basilio to continue dreaming about freedom for his motherland with the words: "I shall die without seeing the dawn break upon my homeland. You, who shall see it, salute it! Do not forget those who have fallen during the night." He died there after. In the epilogue, it was explained that Kapitan Tiago became addicted to opium and was seen to frequent the opium house in Binondo to satiate his addiction. Maria Clara became a nun where Father Salvi, who has lusted over Maria Clara from the beginning of the novel, regularly used her to fulfill his lust. One stormy evening, a beautiful crazy woman was seen at the top of the convent crying and cursing the heavens for the fate it has handed her. While the woman was never identified, it is suggested that the said woman was Maria Clara.

II.

Message of Rizal for the Filipinos

Noli me tangere is a Latin phrase that Rizal took from the Bible, meaning Touch me not. In John 20:13-17, the newly-risen Christ says to Mary Magdalene: Touch me not; I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. Within the plot are episodes and images, which, if they do not improve the unity of the novel, effectively carry out Rizal's purposes in writing it. The scene in the cockpit sarcastically portrays the humiliating effects of the passion for gambling. The vivid All Soul's Day dialogue of the Tertiaries on the gaining of indulgence is an unforgettable condemnation of fanaticism and superstition. The fiesta sermon of Fray Damaso, eloquently protests against the vulgar ignorance and hypocritical religious tyranny of the friars. In these episodes perhaps, rather than in the novel as a whole, lie the book's power. The ultimate message is not always clearly spelled out, but the abuses and defects of the colonial regime are explicitly revealed. The discussions of Elias and Ibarra disclose possible solutions, and though Rizal is careful not to go for revolution, the threat is unmistakable if radical reforms are not forthcoming. Rizal's book persistently unmasks contemporary Spaniards in the Philippines of every kind. The corruption and brutality of the civil guard drive good men to outlawry rather than reduce banditry. The administration crawls with self-seekers, out to make their fortune at the expense of the Filipinos, so that the few officials who are honest and sincere are unable to overcome the treacherous workings of the system, and their efforts to help the country often end up in frustration or in self-ruin. The friars have made the Catholic religion an instrument for enriching and perpetuating themselves in power by seeking to mire ignorant Filipinos in fanaticism and superstition instead of teaching them true Catholicism, by controlling the government, by opposing all progress and by persecuting the Filipino ilustrado, unless they make themselves their servile flatterers. Rizal does not, however, spare his fellow countrymen. The superstitious and hypocritical fanaticism of many who consider themselves religious people, the ignorance, corruption, and brutality of the Filipino civil guards, the passion for gambling unchecked by the thought of duty and responsibility, the servility of the wealthy Filipino towards friars and government officials, the ridiculous efforts of Filipinos to dissociate themselves from their fellowmen or to lord it over them -- all these are ridiculed in the novel. Nevertheless, Rizal clearly implies that many of these failings are traceable to association with the Spaniard, or to the misguided policy of the government and the questionable practices of the friars.

Yet, Rizal balances the national portrait by highlighting the virtues and good qualities of the unspoiled Filipino: the modesty and devotion of the Filipino woman, the unstinting hospitality of the Filipino family, the devotion of parents to their children and children to their parents, the deep sense of gratitude, the solid common sense of the untutored Filipino peasant. The Noli is, therefore, not merely an attack on the Spanish colonial regime; it is a charter of nationalism. It calls on the Filipino to recover his self-confidence, to appreciate his own worth, to return to the heritage of his ancestors, to assert himself as the equal of the Spaniard. It insists on the need of education, of dedication to the country, of absorbing aspects of foreign cultures that would enhance the native traditions.

III. Own opinion about Noli Me Tangere

My first opinion about this story when we tackled it back in High school was, boring. First, I found it boring because it was discussed using the Filipino language. Second because, I havent really read the whole story back then. Just a simple glimpse at the summary and at the chapters, then afterwards Ill suddenly forget it. Back then, I only read it because it was required for us to study and read it. But now that Im a college student already, more matured than before, just by reading the summary of Noli Me Tangere, theres something that makes you want to read it as a whole. Read all the chapters, and understand what Rizal wants to share to us, Filipinos. The story also makes you curious that, if you were at that moment, what would you contribute for your country? Will you also take the risk just to fight for this country? Are you that brave enough to be like Rizal, who died for his own beliefs? If you were Rizal, what message or inspiration will you be leaving for the future Filipinos? Especially the youths, because Rizal once said Ang mga kabataan ang pag-asa ng Bayan. I really admire him for having the spirit to write this true to life story of the Filipinos. Even if it means dying for the sake of others, he did it. For us.