LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC:

APPLICATION TO LITERATURE OR
APLICATION TO LITERARY ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 6
CONTINUATION…..
SAMPLE/EXCERT OF A
REVOLUTIONARY
NOVEL:
 “EL FILIBUSTERISMO”
BY: JOSE RIZAL

“Why then has He forsaken me?” Asked Simoun (to Father Florentino) in a voice over-flowing
with rancour.

“Because you chose a means of which He could not approve”, replied the priest sternly. “The
glory of saving a country cannot given to one who has contributed to its ruin. You believed that
what crime and inequity had stained and deformed, more crime and more inequity could cleanse
and redeem. This was error, Hate only creates monsters; crime, criminals; only love can work
wonders, only love can work wonders, only virtue can redeem. If our country is some day to be
free, it will not through vice and crime, it will not be through the corruption of its sons, some
deceived, others bribed; redemption pre-supposes virtue, sacrifice, and sacrifice, love.”
“ Very well, I accept your explanation,” replied Simoun after a pause. “I was wrong. But because
I was wrong, was this God of yours to deny freedom to a whole people and spare others much
more evil than I was? What is my error compared with the crimes of those who govern us? Why
should this God of yours give more importance to my inequities than to the cries of the innocent?
Why did He not strike me down and then work the people’s victory? Why allow so many who
are worthy and just to suffer and, without lifting a finger, find satisfaction in their sufferings?”

“The just and the worthy must suffer so that their ideas may be known and spread. The vessel
must be shaken or broken to release the perfume; the stone must be struck to raise a spark. There
is something providential in the persecutions of tyrants, Mr. Simoun!”

“I knew that. That is why I encouraged tyranny…….”

 “Yes, my friend, but it was filth that spread more than anything else. You fomented social corruption without sowing a single idea. This fermentation of vices could inspire only nausea, and if anything had sprouted overnight it would
have been only a toadstool for only government are fatal to it and kill it, but they also kill the society in which they are bred. An immoral government is matched by a demoralized people; an administration without conscience, by
greedy and servile townsmen and outlaws and robbers in the mountains. The slave is the image of his master; the country, of its government.”

There was a brief pause. “Then what is to be done,” Asked Simoun.

“Endure and work.” “Endure, work!” replied Simoun sarcastically. “It is easy to say so when there is nothing to be endured, when work is rewarded. If this od yours requires such sacrifices from men who can scarcely be sure of the
present
And doubt there will be a future for them…. Ah, if you had seen what I have; unfortunate wretches
suffering unspeakable tortures for crimes they never committed, the murders done to conceal the
crimes or blunders of others, pitiful fathers of families torn from their homes to work uselessly on
highways that crumbled the next morning which seemed to be guilt only to bury their families in
misery--- endure, work, it is the will of God! Persuade these people that they are murdered for
their own salvation, that they work for the prosperity of their homes. Endure, suffer--- what kind of
a God is that?”

“A most just God, Mr. Simoun,” replied the priest, “a God who punishes our lack of faith, our
vices, the little regard we have for dignity and the civic virtues. We tolerate vice and thereby
become accomplices in it, sometimes we go so far as to applaud it; it is only just, then, very just,
that we should suffer the consequences and that children should do the same. He is the God of
freedom, Mr. Simoun, who makes us love it by weighting the yoke upon our shoulders; He is a
God of mercy and of justice, who improves us with His punishments and grants happiness only to
those who have merited it with their exertions.
Our misfortunes are our own fault, let us blame nobody else for them. If Spain were to see us less
tolerant of tyranny and readier to fight and suffer for our rights, Spain would be the first to give us
freedom because, when the fruit of conception reaches the time of birth, woe to the mother that
tries to strangle it! But as long as the Filipino people do not have sufficient vigor to proclaim,
head held high and chest bared, their right to a life of their own in human society, and to guarantee
it with their sacrifices, as long as we see our countrymen feel privately ashamed, hearing the
growl of their rebelling and protesting conscience, while in public they keep silent and even join
the oppressor in mocking the oppressed…… Mr. Simoun, as long as our people are not prepared,
and enter the struggle deceived or compelled, without a clear idea of what they need to do, the
best-planned movements will fail and it is better that they should fail, for why give the bride to the
groom if he does not love her enough and is not ready to die for her?
Since the dying man had nothing more to say, Father Florentino, engrossed in his own thought
whispered:

“Where are the youths who will dedicate their innocence, their idealism, their enthusiasm to the
good of the country? Where are they who will give generously of their blood to wash away so
much shame, crime and abomination? Pure and immaculate must the victim be for the sacrifice
to be acceptable. Where are you, young men and young women, who are to embody in
yourselves the life force that has been drained from our veins, the pure ideals that have grown
stained in our minds, the fiery enthusiasm that has been quenched in our hearts? We await you,
come for we await you!”

When the priest returned to the bedside he saw by the lamplight that Simoun was still, his eyes
closed, and the hand which had pressed his own open limp at the edge of the bed. For an instant
he thought that Simoun slept but, observing no signs of breathing, touched him gently and then
realized that he was dead and already turning cold.
……. Then the old priest, with an effort of his Herculean arms, hurled the chest (which contained
Simoun’s fabulous treasure) through the air and into the sea. It turned round upon itself several
times and fell quickly in a shallow curve, its polished surface reflecting a few pale gleams. The
old priest saw the splash and heard the broken sound as it plunged into the depths which closed
upon the treasure. He waited for some time to see if the depths would throw up anything but the
waves kept their unbroken array, as secretive as before without one wrinkle added to the rugged
surface, as if into the immensity of the sea only a pebble had fallen.

“May nature guard you in the deepest of the deep, among the corals and the pearls of the eternal
seas” the priest said, solemnly stretching out his hand, “When man should need you fort a
purpose holy and sublime, God will know how to raise you from the bottom of the seas. Until
then you will do no evil, there, you will not thwart justice or incite greed!”
 NINETEENTH CENTURY SPANISH
WRITES LARRA AND GALDOS IN RIZAL
“RENATO DE GUZMAN ROSALES”
On August 17, 1983, Benigno Aquino, a political leader of the opposition party was
assassinated upon his arrival at the Manila International Airport as three years of exile in the
United States. Aquino was senator in the Philippines when former President Ferdinand Marcos
declared martial rule in 1972. he was sent to prison for leading the opposition party against the
government. He was given the death penalty but due to ill health Marcos allowed him to leave
the Philippines for the United States in 1979, where he stayed for three years as an exile.

The death of Aquino disrupted the promotion of non-violent reforms in the Philippines, which
reminds the whole world of Jose Rizal’s death, who was executed by the Spaniards in 1896.
Rizal’s execution worsened the political conditions during the struggle for independence. The
same phenomenon happened in the Philippines in the case of Senator Aquino.
Before the People Power Revolution against Marcos in1986, Aquino was a man who had the
courage to unite an ample sector of public opinion and perhaps promote a peaceful restoration
of democracy.

Filipino nationalism of the 19th century has been the central concern of Rizal as a novelist and
poet. For instance, the protagonist in Noli Me Tangere is a victim of a political violence and
clerical oppression as his imagination moved towards the idea of freedom. While the
protagonist in Noli Me Tangere is a constructive character, in El Filibusterismo the apathy
(which is a romantic character) invites the protagonist, Simoun, to be more aggressive and
violent. Rizal’s novels created a realistic approach of the Spanish colonial society of the
country, but the basic conflict is simply between the Philippines and Spain. The conflict is not
limited to that between social classes, but is also between different individuals who do not only
feel love and hate but also a human desire for a major change in the social order.
In the manner, the tension created reflects Rizal’s social, moral and political preoccupation.

The major role played by the Spaniards in their more than 300 years of stay in the Philippines is
praised and at the same time criticized. The abuses commited by the Catholic Church eventually
led to a Filipinos. Nevertheless, the majority of the Filipinos who associated with the church were
very vocal in favor the rights advocated by their compatriots against he injustices to an
exploitation of the Filipinos by the Spaniards.

As a result, in 1872, Three Filipino priests (Burgos, Gomez and Zamora) paid with their lives
because of all their comments and liberal ideas about reforms. Their execution is a proof of how
the Spaniards ruled ruthlessly despite the growing discontentment of the Filipinos. The people
revolted against the exploitation of the people by military commanders, the abuses of the tax
collectors, the ownership of large estates by the religious orders and the privileged “mestizos”.
El Filibusterismo is a continuation of the first novel. It comes from the word “filibustero,” a
word that generally means pirate, referring to the Chinese pirates who came to the Philippines
centuries ago. The “Filibustero” is a rebel or an agitator, separatist who seeks for freedom and
social reforms. In the Philippines, a “Filibuster” is a person who takes up arms against Spain;
he is a reformist. The patriots struggles with tenacity against the Spaniards and the word
“Filibustero” means the “Filipino” itself – a person with liberal ideas; one who refuses the
monastic/military regimen which then ruled islands. Any Filipino who protest and opposes the
injustices and abuses of Spaniards and works for the freedom of his country is called a
“Filibustero.”
The novel starts when ship Tabo navigated along Pasig River, by way of Laguna de Bay.
The protagonist Simoun is among the passengers. He is a young, rich jeweler. He is a
mysterious man because no one knows anything about his past. He pretends to be a friend of
the Spanish governor, but in reality the governor is his worst enemy. The identity of this
mysterious man is
reveled in the 7th chapter of the novel. He is Ibarra, the young liberal in Noli Me Tangere, who
had disappeared at the end of the novel. Apparently, he escaped and spent some years as a
businessman, a diversion which made him very rich. He has political power and influence; in
reality, he plans to avenge himself against the Spaniards in the wedding of the young couple
Paulita Gomez and Juanito Pelaez Juanito is given a lamp where the protagonist placed an
explosive. When lighted it would explode, and destroy the house and kill all the guests; the
governor general, the friars and Spanish officials of the colonial government. At the same time, the
collaborators of Simoun would carry out the plan and explode bombs simultaneously in all the
important buildings of Manila. Simoun’s plan which produces the action of the novel.

Nevertheless, the revolutionary plot is discovered. Isagani, another character in the novel, throws
the lamp to the sea where it explodes. Simoun escapes.
Wounded, he finds refuge in the house of father Florentino, but soon the Spanish authorities find
him there living in the housed of priest. He confesses to the Father Florentino later of his plan to
kill all the enemies in the wedding reception which the explosive. He commits suicide because he
des not want to be imrisoned. His choice to commit suicide is characteristic of tragedy. The suicide
is an act of rebellion of the protagonist and reflects his final vengeance against the ecclesiastical
power.

If Noli Me Tangere starts and ends with a scene in the town of San Diego, El Filibusterismo
continues the action chronologically until the suicide of the protagonist. Flashbacks enable us to
enter the first novel, when Simoun narrates his story to Father Florentino. Here is a technique that
insists on suspending the narration of an event up to the end of Noli Me Tangere and continues
with events in El Filibusterismo. The action of the novel also occurs in the town of San
Diego; it is a fictitious world where events of the socio-political reality of the Philippines
happened in that epoch.

Noli Me Tangere could be harmful and ironical. Rizal maintained his novelistic interest for
customs but with a different intention; to ridicule religious dogmas. El Filibusterismo, on the
other hand describes the evils that penetrate the two classes in Philippine society – if the crime of
the upper class is an “avarice,” the problem of the lower class is “ignorance,” which is the mother
of her vanity and servitude. El Filibusterismo as a social protest novel represenrs the authors’s
harsh judgment about the political conditions in the country, and the negative tone reflects the
disillusionment and depression which Rizal encountered on his way to reforms. In addition, the
intellectual impact of Noli Me Tangere caused consternation in the Filipino Catholic world; the
novel attacked the friars and the officials of the Spanish regime.
 Both novels give a strong feeling of nationalism of young countries like the Philippines during
the 19th century, which wanted to create its own identity. The novels are political witnesses. In the
colonial epoch of the Filipino people, due to hypocrisy, the people suffered. The novels tried to
present the illnesses, social, political religious, economic and similar concerns in the works of the
Spanish writers, Larra and Galdos.

Rizal’s novels altered the course of Philippine history. They were said to have changed the
Philippine society despite what were said by the propagandists and other polemic writers. Who
we are as group of people/or race and what we do are always a product of varied factors, one of
them as in Rizal’s case leads to his literary novels that reveal how he was influenced by 19th
century Spanish writers – Larra and Galdos. Wherever and however the influences, the fact
remains that Rizal’s novels give the reader a contemporary appreciation of the
Reality in Philippine society, with historical episodes evoking social, political, psychological
and historical struggles.

Today’s generation has many a number of souls vibrating with Rizal’s passion- the love for
one’s country. Only those with genuine desire and interest for freedom, like Rizal, would reap
the joy of a battle well-fought. One is made to think if it is possible to have another Jose Rizal
at present; it IS possible. Having a reaffirmation of Rizal’s brilliance, not only as a novelist,
one can’t help but be proud of being a Filipino. For a long time ago, there was Rizal whose
brilliance made the Filipinos shine and rival like the other great writers of the world.
THANK YOU!