Points to take into consideration Schumacher, S.J.

on the Noli This book is not just a mere attack on the existing Filipino situation but it was a proclamation of the gospel of Filipino nationalism. He intended in this book to unmask the hypocrisy which came under the cloak of religion to impoverish us, to brutalize us and to tell our compatriots of our faults, vicesand shameful complacency with these miseries. On the Spaniards in his time: the corrupt and brutal guardia civil, the selfseeking government officials & elite (e.g. Doa Victorina), the friars that use religion as a means of obtaining and safeguarding their power and influence. On the indios: correcting their wrong beliefs on what the friars are teaching them, waking them up in their complacent state But Rizal did not only emphasize the bad side of the indio in his timehe says something too about the exemplary lives of an ideal woman, Filipino family. Reactions: though there are praises for it being an expository novel about the current Philippine situation, it had been rained with bad criticism, mostly by the Spaniards who go against foreign ideas (e.g. Rizal glorifying the German educational system), calling it heretical, impious, scandalous etc. Anderson and the Forms of Consciousness in the Noli Who is the Filipino people Rizal tries to communicate with through the Noli? It can be seen in two uncommon modes: the ethnic groups mentioned in the novel and on the political terms used. In the former, it can be inferred that Rizal emphasizes that there is a solid Filipino identity made up of a melding pot of cultures, mestizos and indios alike. Maybe this concept of the Filipino is still in the POV of the colonizers, because there had been no unified identity among the natives and mestizos alike. Ther are some eccentricities, though, as can be seen through han Elias not being able to speak a single tagalog word and his considering himself an indio and of various peninsulares speaking in almost fluent tagalog. In the political terms, however, we see that this perspective of a nation and of a Filipino people is more of an optimistic view, to oversimplify. In truth, it is already in its early stages.