Tombstone Laurel(courage) and

the flower of pomelo

Religious faith Worn by the bride and
groom at a wedding
A woman symbolizing purity
symbolizing
constancy The secret, inner
dedication by Rizal
to his parents
Mirasol flower
representing
youth seeking The author’s
the son name, meaning
the green
renewal, mounting
up into the green
of the most
eduring of all
Philippine trees,
Foot of a friar the bamboo
Ibarra: “But why do you write if
don’t want to be read?”

Pilosopong Tasyo: "I do not

write for this generation. I am
writing for other ages. If this
could read me, they would burn
my books, the work of my whole
life. On the other hand, the
generation which interprets
these writings will be an
educated generation; they will
understand me and say: Not all
were asleep in the night-time of
our grandparents'." Pilosopong Tasio by Juan Luna
One of a series of drawings Luna made for a
planned illustrated second edition of Jose Rizal's
Noli me tangere
—Noli Me Tangere
I. Mental or Psychological Immaturity
A. Inability to tell right from wrong, good from bad,
beautiful from the ugly, treasure from trash
1. Gullibility- readiness to cherish beliefs and
rumors and refusal to question or challenge their
validity
2. Naiveté- no knowledge of the bad side of
human nature or ignorance of the duality in nature
3. Foolishness- giving something or everything for
nothing, or the opposite: getting everything for
nothing
4. Guilelessness- inability to suspect evil
intentions; inability to anticipate danger;
inability to tell a friend from a foe

5. Wrong or foolish choices

B. Inability to see beneath appearances

1. Shallowness-inability to troubleshoot or
diagnose what is wrong or see the root
cause of things
2. Love for form, not substance; for exteriors
not interiors
3. Inability to see hidden connections,
hidden motives, hidden messages
C. Inability to think independently
1. Blind obedience
2. Imitation; lack of originality
3. Bigotry or intolerance of new,
strange ideas outside one’s
beliefs
II. Emotional Immaturity
A. Feelings of inferiority
1. Love for pretension (make-believe)
2. Escapism; compulsive lying
3. Envy
4. Awe of others (especially foreigners)
5. Lust for power, titles
6. Vulgarity (showing off)
7. Arrogance
8. Insecurity
9. Love for attention, applause (self-
absorption)
10. Tyranny, inconsideration or
exploitation of others
B. Weakness of character

1. Oversensitivity (hurting/crying over

nothing)
2. Denial; refusal to reckon with unpleasant
truths/facts; blaming others, never
accepting blame for one’s actions
3. Proneness to depression and suicide
4. Dependence or addiction
5. Complacency or acceptance of status quo
III. Moral/Spiritual Immaturity
1. Timidity/Cowardice- inability to stand up
for one’s rights inability to say no
2. Apathy- inability to take up for someone
victimized by evil
3. Indolence- laziness to think or to ask or to
challenge and to act
4. Defeatist attitude- leaving everything to
God and asking God for everything
B. Incontinence- inability to restrict urges
and passions

1. Lust
2. Greed, corruption
3. Gluttony
4. Murder
 Noli Me Tangere "Do not touch me" is what Christ said to Mary Magdalene when she
sees him and recognizes him after the resurrection:
John 20:17 - Jesus saith unto her, “TOUCH ME NOT; for 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)."
 “ Our ills we owe
to ourselves alone,
so let us blame no
one. If Spain should
see that we were less
complaisant with
tyranny and more
disposed to struggle
and suffer for our
rights, Spain would
be the first to grant
us liberty”.
 Diagnosis: Sores, Not Flies

With or without the flies, a sore-

ridden body, if untreated, will die.
Rizal’s description of Sisa...

“ weak of character, with more heart

than brain; she only knew how to love
and weep. To Sisa her husband was
her God; her son, her angels”.
…wife of a heartless man, who
struggles to live for her sons while the
husband engages in wandering and
cockfighting. Their interview are rare
but always painful. He had stripped her
of her few jewels to pay for his vices
and when the suffering Sisa no longer
had anything to satisfy the whims of
her husband he started to maltreat her.
He, who knew to what point he was adored
and feared, behaved like a false god; each
day he became more cruel, inhuman and
willful.
The mother who can only teach her child how to
kneel and kiss hands must not expect sons with
blood other than that of vile slaves.

If the Filipina will not change her mode of being, let

her rear no more children, let her merely give birth
to them. She must cease to be the mistress of the
home, otherwise she will unconsciously betray
husband, child, native land, and all.

Letter to the Young Women of Malolos

Jose Rizal
Leon Ma. Guerrero’s impression on Maria
Clara

“is plainly a ninny, a romantic adolescent, a

shy virgin seemingly impervious to the
temptations of the flesh, fonder of the
language of love than of its real
challenges…doesn’t have the courage…to
overcome the obstacles to her desires…”
 “Why independence if the slaves
of today will be the tyrants of
tomorrow? For he who submits to
tyranny loves it”
Jose Rizal- El Filibusterismo
The Noli’s chapter on Dona Consolacion is a
graphic portrayal of one side of the coin of
immaturity- tyranny, and how tyrants are
made
Dona Victorina

“ She was dressed in a silk gown embroidered

with flowers and a hat with a huge parrot half
crushed between blue and red ribbons, the dust of
the road mixed with the rice powder on her cheeks
seemed to augment her wrinkles”
 The purpose of the
novel was very simply to raise political
consciousness in relation to the
current state of affairs in the
Philippines
Tasio lives in the same society, yet he
wasn’t really a part of it. In his long
conversation with Ibarra, we get the
feeling of hearing someone talking to
himself, as if he were Ibarra in his old
age; Ibarra the young Tasio.
In his Noli he does seek for
reforms, demands them
even, but from Filipinos
rather than from Spaniards.
 It is through the female protagonists, that
Rizal is capable of depicting the country as
self-sacrificing,
dedicated, and of purity.

Both Sisa and Maria Clara have more

heart than brains, and though Sisa
escaped into madness early in the story;
Maria Clara was a half-crazed nun at the
end of the novel.
 Doña Victorina is more ridiculous than
funny, but she serves the purpose of
showing how laughable persons could be
when they reject and deny their own identity
in favor of an imitation.
Father Damaso is so obviously a
villainous character but towards the end
of the novel, he revealed that he too
could love in a most sincere fashion.

Father Salvi is the type of man—priest or

layman—who fights a losing battle with
his vile passions, which is probably why
he does not have time to meddle in
politics or the local government.
 Ibarra even
admits, “I was not brought
up among the people, and
perhaps I do not know
what they need.
According to Jose Rizal “Then there
was a falling-off, they were lowered
in their own eyes, they became
ashamed of what was distinctively
their own, in order to admire and
praise that was foreign and
incomprehensible, their spirit was
broken”.
 “So that by means of education and of
labor they might have a personality of
their own and make themselves
worthy of liberty."
It calls on the Filipino to regain
his confidence, to appreciate
his own worth, to return to the
heritage of his ancestors, to
assert himself as the equal of
the Spaniards.
Elias to Ibarra

Without freedom , there is no light…you see nothing

of the struggle that is being prepared ,or the cloud
on the horizon. The struggle begins in the field of
ideas , but will descend into the arena and stain it
with blood .I hear the voice of God . Woe to those
who will resist Him! For them history has not been
written. Our people slept for centuries, but one day
the lightning struck and its very act of destroying , it
called forth life . Since then new tendencies work on
our spirits, and these tendencies, now scattered ,
will one day unite under the guidance of God. God
has not failed other peoples; He will not fail ours;
their cause is the cause of freedom.
Elias to Ibarra

You are going to stir up a war , for you have money

and brains and will easily find many helping hands;
unfortunately, many are discontented . But in this
struggle which you are about to undertake , the
defenseless and the innocent will suffer most. The
same sentiments that a month ago led me to ask you
for reforms lead me now to ask you to reflect. Our
country does not think of separating herself from the
Motherland; she asks nothing more than a small
measure of liberty, of justice and of love. The
discontented, the criminal , and the desperate will
follow you but the people will stand back…I would
not follow you myself: I will never resort to these
extreme remedies while I see some hope in men.
Jose Rizal to Mariano Ponce

Without 1872 there would not be now either

a Plaridel or Jaena, or would there exist
brave and generous Filipino colonies in
Europe; without 1872 Rizal would be a
Jesuit now and instead of writing Noli Me
Tangere, would have written the opposite.
 Nationalistic Ideas of Jose Rizal

1. Faith in God
2. Love of country
3. Preservation of Asian heritage
4. Adoption of native language
5. Dignity of the individual
6. Equality of races
7. Inviolability of human rights
8. Rights of women
9. Education of the masses
10. Republican form of government
11. Rule of Law
12. Enlightened citizenship for good
government
13. World unity and brotherhood of
nations