Name: GALAGALA, EWAN MARY ROSE P.

Year & Section: BSCE-2B

Date: December 17, 2020
Instructor: MS. CRISTINE GULFO
Asian Literature

1. Originally written in Spanish, this essay was translated by Dr. Encarnacion Alzona. Though the manuscript is incomplete, the reader
can grasp what Rizal means by the sense of the beautiful. Attempt to explain it in your own words.
 Dr. Jose P. Rizal attempted to convey to us his own perspective of what really beauty is by writing this piece, The Sense of
Beautiful. And through reading, it somehow helped me cultivate and understand the real sense of beauty. That beauty is not
just something that you can see, not just something that you can experience or feel and not just something that you can
recognize by the use your senses. It is more than that. It is everything behind those shallow definitions. That sense of beautiful
is about the root of a thing. How it started, how it’s created and the reason why something or someone existed. Sense of
beautiful is about the deeper intention of a certain creation. The meaning behind every turns, every curves and every move. It
is about the purpose foreseen upon creation, the function, the advantages and even the disadvantages of it. All in all, in my
own words, the sense of beauty is the entirety of something or someone including everything about it beginning from the roots
up to the flowers bloomed.
2. Rizal makes ample use of figurative language. Is the use of such a literary device helpful in bringing out this message? Why?
 By definition, figurative language refers to the use of words in a way that deviates from the conventional order and meaning in
order to convey a complicated meaning and uses an ordinary sentence to refer to something without directly saying it. For me,
yes the usage of figurative language in this manuscript helped a lot in delivering its context. It used words that will make you
think deeply about the meaning of it. It also added to the span of imaginations of the readers and made the piece more
interesting, dramatic and effective.
3. Why did men invent the fine arts? What art was born first? Why?
 According to the manuscript, men invented fine arts because they want to find a way in expressing their thoughts and deep
feelings that they cannot express verbally. They invented this one to have a diversion of their emotions. Moreover, fine arts
are invented to make people appreciate meanings of every creation God made or anyone made. Also painting gives a lot of
advantages to both artists and audience since it relaxes one’s self, make him/her appreciate things around and give an alley
of freedom to express. Music is the first art born. It is because men looked for diversion of their sorrows and they found it
through sound or music. By the help of this, they are able to compose compositions that contained their rock bottom sufferings
that they cannot express in any other ways.
4. Why does Rizal regard painting as the only art that gives man the right to call himself “the image and likeness of God”?
 To my understanding, Rizal regarded painting as the only art that gives man the right to call himself “the image and likeness of
God” because it is the only art that lets a man create something that satisfies the sense of seeing and gave them the freedom
to design a piece that reflects them and their inner thoughts. Just like how God created the man with the likeness of his image,
a man can also make his own creation with his own image and preference.
5. Do you find this essay easy to understand? Why? How does the essay affect a sensitive reader?
 For me, this essay needs deep cultivation and focused comprehension in order to understand its context. Dr. Encarnacion
Alzona translated it by using words that aren’t so easy to comprehend and used figurative language that needs deep thinking.
But even with that, Jose Rizals style of writing and Dr. Encarnacion Alzona’s way of translating made the manuscript
interesting and new to the readers which is attractive. The style of writing is very effective and can reach different level of
analyzation. It affects sensitive readers in a way that it made them appreciate different perceptions about the sense of beauty.
It made the readers recognize different point of view.