Name: Vahia Ralliza Dotarot

NOLI ME TANGERE

Noli Me Tangere is the first novel written by Filipino patriot and national
hero Dr. José P. Rizal in 1887 and published in Germany. The story line goes
detailed with the society of the Philippines during Spanish colonial period and
features aristocracy behind poverty and abuse of colonialists. The plot revolves
around Crisostomo Ibarra, mixed-race heir of a wealthy clan, returning home
after seven years in Europe and filled with ideas on how to better the lot of his
countrymen. Striving for reforms, he is confronted by an abusive ecclesiastical
hierarchy and a Spanish civil administration by turns indifferent and cruel. In
its publication, the novel caused an uproar among Filipino people that also felt
Spanish abuse. Noli me Tangere was followed by its sequel, El Filibusterismo
(1889) before common Filipinos crossed the borderline and started the
infamous Philippine Revolution in 1896, some months before Dr. Rizal's
execution. Rizal entitled this novel as such drawing inspiration from John
20:13-17 of the Bible, the technical name of a particularly painful type of
cancer (back in his time, it was unknown what the modern name of said
disease was). He proposed to probe all the cancers of Filipino society that
everyone else felt too painful to touch.