Noli Me Tangere's Impact on Philippine Society

“NOLI ME TANGERE”
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Noli Me Tangere is the first novel written by Filipino patriot and national hero Dr.
Jose P. Rizal in 1887 and published in Germany. In more than century since its appearance,
Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere has become widely known as the great novel of the
Philippines. The story line goes detailed with the society of the Philippines during Spanish
colonial period and features aristocracy behind poverty and abuse of colonialists. A
passionate love story set against the ugly political backdrop of repression, torture, and
murder, “The Noli”, as it is called in the Philippines the first major artistic manifestation of
Asian resistance to European colonialism, and Rizal became a guiding conscience and
martyr for the revolution that would subsequently rise up in the Spanish province. It’s been
said that Rizal was inspired to write the Noli after reading Hariet Beecher Stowe’s work
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which deals with the story of black slaves and their white slave
masters. In his novel was a description of all sorts of hardships and abuses that white
people committed onto black people. Initially, Rizal saw in it parallels to the experiences of
Filipinos under the Spaniards.
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 turning indifferent and cruel. The novel
suggests, through plot developments that has meaningful change in this context is
exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. Furthermore, using satire brilliantly, Rizal creates
other memorable characters whose lives manifest the poisonous effects of religious and
colonial oppression.
A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
When Jose Rizal was born, the Philippines had been under Spanish rule for almost
three centuries. Rizal was obviously a product of the Spanish regime it is, therefore,
important for us, if we are to understand his writings including Noli Me Tangere, to know
something of the times in which he lived.
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The Filipino first felt the impact of Spanish power by the middle of the sixteenth
century, the Philippines having formally become a colony of Spain in 1571. This brought
about the need for a highly centralized government to be headed by a governor-general. As
the highest official in the country, the governor-general was given full military,
ecclesiastical, and legislative powers to the extent that he used his authority for his own
selfish interests and that of his followers. That was the beginning of graft and corruption in
the Philippines.
Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere was all about the description of the Spanish
colonization here in the Philippines and how the Spanish treated Filipinos badly. It
followed the story of Crisostomo Ibarra who came from Europe to study and returned in
the Philippines after his seven years of journey. He reunited with his acquaintances
including his nemesis, Padre Damaso at Kapitan Tiago’s house. He also visited his love,
Maria Clara whom he missed for so long. He was shocked to learn about his father’s death.
Lieutenant Guevarra, his father’s friend, told the story behind his father’s death. He was
told that Padre Damaso ordered the gravediggers to transfer Rafael Ibarra’s body to the
Chinese Cemetery. Although the gravediggers did not follow Padre Damaso’s order, instead
they threw the body into the river. This made Crisostomo Ibarra angry that made him start
a revolution against Padre Damaso and the Spanish Government.
B. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Noli Me Tangere presented a problem, the need for change in the country under
Spanish tutelage. The characters in different literary pieces represent their stand in the
current issues of the society, especially the symbolic representation of the writer’s use. The
novel depicted real-life events during the Spanish colonization in the Philippines like the
Friars command decisions were more powerful than the Governor-General’s decisions,
social issues, injustice, and the Philippines as a backward country.
The conflicts in the novel exist until today’s generation that it affects our society
and the country that needs to learn and read Noli Me Tangere. The conflicts that were
dominant in the novel are; corruption, injustice, poverty, and abuse remain the same
problem up to this day.
This study has identified the common idea about Noli Me Tangere of written by
our National Hero Jose P. Rizal. This study seeks to know this concept and aims to answer
this question:
1. How does Noli Me Tangere impact our current society?
CHAPTER 2: INTERPRETATION
The book, Noli Me Tangere is a fictional-historical novel. It centers around the era
of the Spanish regime, which was a hundred years ago, it was fictional because the main
characters are only made up but the situations, sufferings, and experiences of these
characters are all true during the Spanish colonization. Noli Me Tangere is important to the
Filipinos for many reasons.
This novel has a lot of symbolism and real-life events that opened the eyes of the
Filipino people during the Spanish colonization to start the revolution and overthrow the
Spanish colonizers. Every character in Noli Me Tangere has a role that depicts different
roles in Philippine society to fight for the freedom of the country. Jose Rizal represented his
persona as Crisostomo Ibarra who was a rich character yet he was rebellious who fought
for the freedom of the Spaniards while Elias who was poor and oppressed by the Spaniards
but he sacrificed his life so that Crisostomo can escape because he believed that Crisostomo
has a better chance to fight against the Spaniards. Elias’ sacrifice paved the way to
Crisostomo Ibarra’s revenge against the Spaniards in the sequel of the novel “El
Filibusterismo”.
How does Noli Me Tangere impact our current society? To answer this question,
we think it has a huge impact on our current society right now, since it has already been
widely discussed in our schools, both in junior high school and in senior high school. The
situation of our current society has far from the happenings in the novel Noli Me Tangere
because it becomes an eye- opener to the people of today. People are now fully aware and
knowledgeable that nobody will be oppressed again like before. Moreover, it impacted to
our current society because our government implemented the Article 3 which is “The Bill of
Rights” to secure the safety of all people living here in the Philippines. And also, to protect
ourselves to the extent where, Filipinos before would not do that to themselves. It has
impacted our current society in a good and positive way. Furthermore, it still reminds us of
our past so that we can study it, learn from it, and emulate the best qualities of being a
Filipino demonstrated by some of the characters in the novel.
CHAPTER 3: REFLECTION OF THE ISSUES
Rizal has a habit of plunging readers into new storylines and alluding to certain
plot elements that are not explained until later, also known as foreshadowing.
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“NOLI ME TANGERE”

A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

B. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

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