GE1804

TASK PERFORMANCE

Instructions:
1. You are tasked to compose a chapter review of the novel Noli Me Tangere, which shows your opinion
and analysis of the previously discussed topics and current affairs of the country. The paper shall
have the following parts:
I. Title Page
II. 200-word (minimum) Abstract
III. Analysis
a. Chapter Title
i. Characters Involved
ii. 200-word (minimum) Chapter Summary
b. Interpretation of Your Junior High School Teacher for this Chapter
c. Reflections of the Issue in the Chapter to Modern Society
i. Existence of the Literary Dilemma in the Modern Society
ii. Implied Topic Covered in this Chapter
d. 200-word (minimum) Personal Reflection
IV. References (in APA format)
2. The paper must answer and discuss the following questions:
a. How does Noli me Tangere impact our current society?
b. Are the problems presented in Noli me Tangere somehow present in our current society?
3. The paper must also cover and discuss at least one (1) of the following topics discussed in this
subject as implications of the novel:
a. Development of Nationalism, Patriotism, and Volunteerism
b. Development of a Nation
c. Land Ownership in the Country
d. The Cavite Mutiny
e. Expatriation
f. Controversies regarding "slanderous" content
4. The paper must NOT have any bullets. It must also cite all the sources used to support or concretize
your answers. Online sources such as Wiki sites, Quora, Reddit, Yahoo Answers, and other similar
sites are NOT allowed. Blog posts are also NOT allowed. Make sure also that you're not sharing your
chosen chapter with another classmate, else your task performance will be graded with zero (0).
Strictly NO Copy-Pasting directly from the Internet!
5. The paper must have the following specifications:
a. Minimum number of words : 1,000
b. Paper size : 8.5" x 14"
04 Task Performance 1 *Property of STI
Page 1 of 9
 GE1804

c. Line spacing : Double

d. Allowed font faces and sizes :
 Arial (10)
 Garamond (12)
 Calibri (11)
 Times New Roman (11)
 Courier New (11)
 Verdana (10)

e. Medium of submission : Long brown envelope

f. Naming convention :
i. Name must be in this format:
SURNAME, <space> Given Name <space> [optional] Suffix <space> Middle Name
- Example (no suffix):
QUEEN, Oliver Jonas Dearden
- Example (with suffix):
CRUZ, Tirso III Silvano
ii. Section must be written underneath the name.
iii. Both name and section must be written on the upper-left corner of the envelope.
6. The paper will be graded based on the rubric below. A sample for the reflection paper is shown on
the next page. Chapter One is already used as example -- pick other chapters to work with.

Reflection Paper
Criteria Description Points Score
All of the writing is done in complete sentences.
Writing Convention Capitalization and punctuation are correct 20
throughout the paper.
The paper accurately shows the student’s
understanding of the topics and how they were used
in deconstructing and providing personal insights to
Contextual Analysis and
the provided guide questions. The student has 25
Argument
provided a sound argument that presents the
position paper without adding, removing, or
fabricating information.
The paper utilized appropriate and reputable sources
to support and concretize the student's answers.
Theoretical Recognition Avoidance of plagiarism is observed. No Wiki sites, 45
Quora, Yahoo Answers and other similar sites are
used as sources.
The paper was organized and followed the specified
Format 10
format.
Total 100

04 Task Performance 1 *Property of STI

Page 2 of 9
 SAMPLE REFLECTION PAPER

CHAPTER I

Isang Pagtitipon [A Gathering]

A REFLECTION PAPER

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

In the Subject GE1804
Rizal's Life and Works

To be Submitted to

Sir Gabriel Jesus Iglesias

Submitted by

BYNES, Amanda Laura Organ

Date of Submission: 23 July 2019

 ABSTRACT
The month of October is coming to an end and Don Santiago de los Santos (or Capitan Tiago) is hosting a
dinner at his house in Binondo which is located along Anloague Street and near the Pasig River. Capitan
Tiago's cousin is receiving the lady guests as well as offering cigars and a compound of betel nut, leaves, and
lime to Spaniards. She soon gets bored, leaves the party which is being held at the living room, and never
reappears. Sitting around one of the tables at the living room are Padre Damaso, Padre Sibyla, a blond youth
who is a newcomer to the Philippines, Senor Laruja, and a soldier. The five men are feasting on English
biscuits and bottles of wine. Padre Damaso is telling the group of how ignorant and indolent the indio are.

Padre Damaso and the Lieutenant nearly figures in a fist fight after the former insults the Vice-Royal Patron
(Capitan General). But Padre Sibyla intervenes and prevents the potential scuttle. Doctor de Espadana and
his wife Dona Victorina arrives at the dinner party. Padre Damaso and group greet the couple and engage
them in a conversation about the invention of the gunpowder. This chapter alone provides deep insights on
how some of the friars view themselves and how they cling onto an image that they so desperately try to
maintain, all the while creating a ominous foreboding for the things to come upon Ibarra's homecoming.

Isang Pagtitipon [A Gathering] nature of “indios,” or native Filipinos. Father

In late October, Don Santiago de los Damaso explains to his listeners that his first post

Santos, who is known as Captain Tiago, throws a in the Philippines was in a small town, where he

large dinner party in Manila. He is very wealthy worked for three years. He boasts that he made

and, as such, the party takes place in his strong connections with the townspeople, who he

impressive home, to which people eagerly flock so claims loved and respected him. When he was

as not to miss an important social event. As the transferred three years later to the town of San

guests mill about, groups of soldiers, European Diego, he explains, the town was sad to see him

travelers, and priests speak to one another. An old go. He then spent the next twenty years in San

lieutenant in the Civil Guard engages in Diego, and though he still doesn’t understand very

conversation with a quiet but argumentatively much Tagalog—the country’s native language—he

cunning Dominican friar named Fray Sibyla, a believes himself a good preacher who intimately

loudmouthed Franciscan friar named Fray knows the townspeople. Because of this, he is

Damaso, and two civilians, one of whom has just upset that when he recently ceased to be San

arrived in the Philippines for the first time. Diego’s friar, only “a few old women and a few

Authoritatively speaking over the others, Fray tertiary brothers saw [him] off.”

Damaso lectures this newcomer about the

 Continuing his rant, Father Damaso says has the right to interfere, and has even less right

that “indios are very lazy.” The foreigner who is to impose punishment,” Damaso says without

new to the Philippines challenges this notion, explanation.

asking, “Are these natives truly indolent by nature, He then references a “little general,”

or is it, as a foreign traveler has said, that we make before trailing off, which angers the lieutenant.

excuses for our own indolence, our backwardness, The lieutenant, a member of the government’s

and our colonial system by calling them indolent?” Civil Guard, yells his support of the Spanish king’s

As Damaso refutes this idea, Father Sibyla steps in representative in the Philippines, whom Damaso

and puts him back on track, underhandedly has insulted. As Father Damaso and the lieutenant

prodding what he intuits is a sensitive issue by approach the possibility of a fistfight, Father Sibyla

asking the boisterous priest why he left San Diego intervenes with philosophical and diplomatic

after twenty years. For the first time all evening, reasoning. The lieutenant dismisses this, saying

Fray Damaso falls silent before slamming his fist that Damaso is out of line. He explains that the

into his chair and cryptically shouting, “Either man whose body was removed from the Catholic

there is religion or there isn’t, and that’s that, cemetery was a friend of his — “a very

either priests are free or they aren’t! The country distinguished person.”

is being lost…it is lost!” “So what if he never went to confessions,”

When Sibyla asks what he means, Damaso the lieutenant says. “So what? I don’t go to

says, “The governors support the heretics against confession either. But to claim that he committed

God’s own ministers!” suicide is a lie, a slur. A man like him, with a son in

This seems to unnerve the lieutenant, whom he has placed all his hopes and affections, a

who begins to stand and asks Damaso to clarify. “I man with faith in God, who understands his

mean that when a priest tosses the body of a responsibilities to society, an honorable and just

heretic out of his cemetery, no one, not even the man, does not commit suicide.”

king himself,
 Continuing with his story, the lieutenant antagonist of this chapter. There wasn't much to

says that Father Damaso exhumed this talk about other than the conversation between

distinguished man’s body from the cemetery. The Damaso and Sibyla with a member of the Guardia

Captain General knew about this, and thus Civil.

transferred Damaso from San Diego as a

The fact that Father Dámaso thinks he can
punishment. Having finished the story, the
generalize about the nature of “indios” indicates
lieutenant storms off, leaving Father Sibyla to say,
his excessive confidence and lack of cultural
“I am sorry that without knowing it I touched
compassion, considering that the term “indio” is a
upon such a delicate matter.”
derogatory term for Filipinos. Furthermore, his
Changing the subject, one of the civilians
domineering character is evident by his
asks about Captain Tiago, the host of the party.
authoritative tendency take command of a
Damaso says that there is “no need for
conversation, lecturing newcomers instead of
introductions” because Tiago is “a good sort.” And
entertaining their questions. It is clear right from
in any case, there are rumors that he has stepped
the start, then, that priests are afforded an
out of the house for some reason, leaving his
outsized amount of power in this community.
guests to mingle. Just then, two people enter the

room. Father Dámaso’s ignorance emerges when

INTERPRETATION DURING JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL he admits that he has spent 23 years in the

During high school, my Filipino instructor Philippines but still doesn’t understand Tagalog,

rarely gave any insights regarding the events of the native language. What’s more, his disrespect

this chapter. Since it has always been a for the community and people he claims to serve

straightforward prose, the scene sets up who the is painfully apparent in his apathy toward learning

characters are and their roles. Obviously, Ibarra is Tagalog. Thus, it’s not hard to see that he’s more

the main character of the story, while Padre interested in appearing to be well-liked than he is

Damaso is the
in actually taking the necessary measures to win perspective of the current situation of the country,

the townspeople’s respect. particularly the secularization issue that eventually

REFLECTIONS OF THE ISSUE TO MODERN SOCIETY

Rizal has a habit of plunging readers into

new storylines and alluding to certain plot

elements that aren’t explained until later, also

known as foreshadowing. In one scene, Father

Sibyla’s question—regarding why Dámaso had to

leave San Diego—prompts an outburst from

Dámaso that references the exhumation of an

important dead man, though readers aren’t

expected to understand the relevance of this until

later. For now, it will suffice to point out that

Dámaso insults the king and asserts that priests

have more power than the government.

Unsurprisingly, this infuriates the lieutenant, who

represents the government’s Guardia Civil. This is

the novel’s first manifestation of the tension

between the Spanish government and the Catholic

church.

As the story revolves around power,

colonialism, and religion, it certainly puts into

led into the Cavite Mutiny. In this context, Padre south, they would blame someone or something

Damaso's insistence of maintaining his else in order to maintain their "clean" image.

authoritative status and appearance reflected PERSONAL REFLECTION

how much the friars were desperate enough to This chapter serves as the "hook, line, and

maintain hold over the government and over the sinker" of the entire novel. It puts up a bright and

people. Also, it could be hinted as to how the witty banter, only to exhume the darker plot that

Spanish friars rejected the notion of ordaining lurks within the lines of each page. Rizal can

local priests ever since the Jesuits left the definitely narrate two (2) stories, demonstrating

country. his fluid capacity to intertwine a light-hearted

If placed in our modern context, this scenario (which follows Ibarra's storyline and his

reflects how some of our countrymen are willing little adventures, only to fall down in the dark) and

to put up a brave front instead of admitting their the underside of the novel (which follows the

mistakes or wrongdoings. And if things truly went

riveting secret behind Ibarra's life, as well as the Filipinos are respectable people; in order for him to

lives of other people involved in the mess the feel authoritative, Filipinos must be below him.

friars made).
1. How does Noli Me Tangere impact our current
society?
Rizal also has the habit of using additional
To answer this question, I think it has little
characters as a mouthpiece for his own political
impact on our society right now, since it has
belief that powerful colonial forces project their
already been widely discussed in our schools, both
own expectations and shortcomings onto the
in junior high school and in college. But, it still
people they try to govern. Unfortunately, Father
reminds us of our past so that we can study it,
Dámaso is too wrapped up in his own self-image—
learn from it, and emulate the best qualities of
his power and importance—to acknowledge that
being a Filipino demonstrated by some of the

characters in the novel.

 There are some of the problems posited in the
2. Are the problems presented in Noli Me
Tangere somehow in our present society? novel that still exists today. One is the effect of

corruption in the country. As seen from the

devious actions of some of the friars in the novel,

some politicians somehow mirror these corrupt

friars. Some of these corrupt politicians covet

money for themselves, impose laws that they

themselves don't follow, and seems to do

anything out of whim.

In this chapter, Fray Damaso foreshadowed

the incident of a dead heretic throwing out its

corpse from the grave it was buried in, signifying

the friars' dominance over society. It is reflected

also in some politicians who use their authority to

assert control over anything -- or anyone.

REFERENCES
LitCharts (n.d.). Noli Me Tangere chapter 1
summary and analysis. Lifted and modified from
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/noli-me-
tangere/chapter-1-a-gathering

Rizal, J. P. (1887). Isang Pagcacapisan (P.H.

Poblete, trans.). In Noli Me Tangere. Retrieved
from
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20228/20228-
h/20228-h.htm

Surname, Author's initials (year of publication).

Title of the Article. Retrieved from
https://web.sitelink.here.html./
Surname, Author's initials (year of publication).
Title of the Book (# ed.). City of Publication:
Publishing Company

Surname, Author's initials (year of publication).

Title of the Book (# ed.). City of Publication:
Publishing Company

Surname, Author's initials (year of publication).

Title of the Article [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved
from https://web.sitelink.here.html./

Surname, Author's initials [YouTube username]

(year of upload). Title of the video [video clip].
Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1010010001
A2/