CHAPTER 9 – NOLI ME TANGERE, CONTEXT AND CONTENT

In more than a century since its appearance, José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere has become
widely known as the great novel of the Philippines. A passionate love story set against the ugly
political backdrop of repression, torture, and murder, “The Noli,” as it is called in the
Philippines, was the first major artistic manifestation of Asian resistance to European
colonialism, and Rizal became a guiding conscience and martyr for the revolution that would
subsequently rise up in the Spanish province.

In the previous chapter, we discuss about the propaganda movement and how it works.
So in this chapter we will focus on discussing the Noli Me Tangere, tracing its publication and
Rizal’s motivation behind its writing. Noli Me Tangere was a part of a publication agenda
conceived by Rizal in the hope of awakening his countrymen and the world about the colonial
condition in the Philippines.

THE PUBLICATION OF THE NOLI ME TANGERE

Noli Me Tangere was Rizal’s first novel. He was 26 years old at the time of its
publication. This novel and its sequel, El filibusterismo, were banned in some parts of the
Philippines because of their portrayal of corruption and abuse by the country’s Spanish
government and clergy.

The first half of Noli me Tangere was written in Madrid, Spain from 1884-1885 while
Dr. José P. Rizal was studying for medicine. While in Germany, Rizal wrote the second half of
Noli me Tangere from time-to-time starting February 21, 1887. After he read the novel Uncle
Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, he had an inspiration to write his own novel with the
same topic to expose Spanish colonial abuse in print. Beecher Stowe's novel describes black
slavery abuse done by white men. Rizal suggested to his fellow Filipino friends in Europe,
through writing, to have a meeting and plan for writing a novel similar to that of Beecher
Stowe's. At this moment, Rizal planned not to write the novel himself, but through collective
efforts done by other Filipinos who shared ideals with him. In 1884, Rizal and his friends
including the Paterno brothers–Pedro, Maximo, and Antonio; Graciano López-Jaena, Evaristo
Aguirre, Eduardo de Lete, Melecio Figueroa, Valentín Ventura and Julio Llorento; decided to
meet at the Paternos' house in Madrid. Each of them agreed to write a unified novel. Suddenly,
when the writing began, most of them wanted to change the topic from Spanish abuse to
somehow related to women. Rizal walked-out of the hall and decided to write the novel himself.
Noli Me Tangere is considered to be romantic but is more socio-historical because of its nature.
Most of the issues discussed in Noli can still be seen today.