REACTION PAPER

ABOUT
NOLI ME TANGERE
AND
EL FILI BUSTERSMO

Nofies, Ericka Mae C. PC/Life and works of Rizal

1C6 Mr. Cesare Vallarta

 Reaction about Dr. Jose Rizal’s novel NOLI ME TANGERE

Jose Rizal’s novel NOLI ME TANGERE is definitely a work of a brilliant literature.

As I look more deeply into the story line and plotting of the novel, it occurs to me that
this piece of work by Dr. Rizal is precisely a social and political satire. The novel clearly
depicts the current socio-political setting and struggle in the Philippines before and
during his time. The characters of the novel are greatly associated with those who exist
in our incumbent society.

Both the movie and the novel are indeed fascinating to watch or read. The
characters and their personalities where meticulously picked by the author to represent
each and every strata of the Spanish colonial society in the Philippines. The oppression
and bigotry of the church and its clergymen were clearly illustrated through the
characters of Fr. Damaso and Fr. Salvi. The concept of how wealthy Indios install
influence to the society of elites by holding large parties and gatherings is best
represented by Kapitan Tiago or Santiago de los Santos the father of Maria Clara. Who
become a puppet of both the church and the government for the protection of his
business interests. Modern Kapitan Tiago are those businessmen who fund political
campaign of politicians to acquire influence and business contracts from the
government.

The cruelty of the head of the constabulary guards, known as the El Alferez, to
the natives and the retaliation of the indios thru rebellion and subversion in the
personification of Elias was a clear and convincing note of Rizal’s view of the class
struggle of his era. Nonetheless, that this depiction of such a society is still in existence
even of today’s modern time. There are still those who choose to go to the country side
and wage war thru rebellion and subversion due to the continuing proliferation of
violence, corruption and oppression not anymore from a foreign rule, but from their own
people, this is the materiality of one of Rizal’s prophetic words that in the near future the
slaves will be the one who will enslave there fellow countrymen.

On the other note, Rizal’s appreciation and adoration to the women of his
generation was embodied by his characterization of Maria Clara. Maria Clara was said
to be the symbol of true Filipina beauty and character. She is veiled with great
politeness and with full of grace in her utterance of words and movement of her delicate,
but fragile body. However, just like what happened to Maria Clara, women now a days
were also victims of violence, obscurantism and carnal lust by people of the church and
those in authority. Another woman in the novel was introduced in the first chapter, She
is Doña Victorina de los Reyes de Espadaña or simply known towards the whole of the
novel as Doña Victoriña. Unlike the feat of Maria Clara, Doña Victorina is a more
mendicant form of a Filipino of that time. She notoriously pretend to be a pure Spanish
mestiza and by doing so she puts heavy make-up in her face to miserably mimic
Spanish women. She even always belittled other Filipinos because of their native ways
by telling to them to be like her, a woman with true “Spanish sophistication”. I can relate
to the character of Doña Victoriña, even of today the likeness of her still exist. There are
many Filipinos that are willing to drop their own identities as Filipinos in exchange of a
more comfortable way of life being offered by other foreign land.

Lastly, the evaluation and criticism of Dr. Rizal to the most basic irreducible unit
of the society or the family is worth to be notice in the passages of the novel. A basic
native Indio family composed of Narcisa or Sisa, her cruel and drunkard husband Pedro
and their two childen namely Basilio, ten years of age and Crispin, seven. The struggle
of their family really affected me the most because what they experienced is still being
experienced today without any hint of a doubt. Sisa, as a loving and caring mother to
her two sons always consider the condition and the wellbeing of her children. She
represents all Filipina mothers and our country the Philippines as our only motherland
which always care and provide for us, the children of this country, we Filipinos.
However, unlike Sisa, Pedro is the personification of a cruel and abusive husband and a
citizen of this nation who always think of himself by satisfying his addiction to all kinds of
vices without considering the negative and abusive effect of such to his people and
motherland. Basilio and Crispin were the clear and convincing representation of child
abuse and slavery which still prospers even of today. There were the victims of cruelty
and abuse by the church and the people in authority who are willing to kill just to enrich
and provide more to themselves even in inhuman ways.

As my conclusion to this reaction paper for the novel NOLI ME TANGERE, I must
admit that Dr. J. Rizal was indeed successful if not triumphant in his aim to influence
and educate his readers to realize the current socio-political scenario of their times. In
his novel, Rizal was able to tackle and to attack the weakness and cancer of society,
both old and new. Because of this writing, many were moved and raised their
consciousness to a level that was not been realized by the colonial masters. Thus
redirecting the course of history and even started a revolution for the cause of
nationhood identity. I might say, as form of an opinion, that the NOLI ME TANGERE can
be considered as a Bible of the true situation of the society. Like the Holy Bible of the
Christians, NOLI ME TANGERE depict stories and passages that exist even today,
much less that it lays down the problem and the rotten system of our modern Philippine
society.
 Reaction about Dr. J. Rizal’s novel El Filibustirismo

After sometime from the publication and release of Dr. Rizal’s first novel
NOLI ME TANGERE, his was able to write a sequel entitled EL FILIBUSTERISMO or
translated as the Filibusterism. The word Filibusterism comes from the word “Filibuster”
which means a person undertaking a rebellious and subversive actions against a
foreign land. From the title therefore one can infer the possible motives and intentions of
the author in writing such piece of literature. The same as his first book NOLI ME
TANGERE, the novel EL FILIBUSTIRISMO also depicts characters and personalities
which has a great relations to the current reality of socio-political setting in the
Philippines.

The ending of the first novel NOLI ME TANGERE was when Crisostomo
Ibarra escaped the constabulary guards thru the help of Elias who instead sacrificed his
own life for the safety of Ibarra. The second novel of Dr. Rizal EL FILIBUSTIRISMO is
all about the return of Crisostomo Ibarra in his native town of San Diego, not to return as
the fugitive, but in disguise as a wealthy jeweler named Simoun whos aim is to avenge
the cruelty he experienced from the hands of the church and the state. like in the first
novel, Rizal intended his characters to be a true representation of exiting people of his
society. Simoun compared to Crisostomo is more like of a mad man than a protagonist.
He aims to yield a revolution by persuading the authorities to further suppress and
oppress the people. As a result, he is expecting that the oppressed Indios would
retaliate in violence. For Me Simoun still exist today. They are those who use their
wealth and influence to the government officials in order to gain for their own personal
advantages.

EL FILIBUSTIRISMO also denotes the continuing class struggle between the

church and colonial government against the native Indios. Here Rizal introduced a
character named Cabesang Tales who was a victim of oppression of the church by
unreasonably grabbing his land. In return to his oppression, he joined the revolution.
Cabesang Tales has a daughter called Juli. Juli was depicted to be a beautiful and
charming young woman, a contemporary character of Maria Clara in NOLI ME
TANGERE. She was the love interest of Basilio, who asked for the influence of Fr.
Camorra in the release of Basilio from incarceration because of an allegation that he
was a member of the subversives. However, because of the carnal lust that Fr. Camorra
has on Juli, she chose to throw herself out of the window rather than to be raped by the
friar. Juli is the embodiment of the modern young women, who are courageous and
gives great importance to their loyalty to a lover and purity as a woman of society.
Father Camorra on the other hand, is the exact likeness of Father Damaso in the first
novel of Rizal. He is arrogant and opportunistic. He used his position as a clergyman to
install influence to the government officials. Today we can associate Fr. Camorra to the
priest and pastors who proclaim themselves as vicars of Christ, but exhibit the opposite
of his teachings.

Basilio is still in the novel and he is a grown boy now. He is already studying for
college. At first, Basilio is still hesitant to join the revolution being proposed by Simoun
for the reason that his career is more important to him. I can see many modern Basilio
is in the society today. They are those who always think first of themselves before the
advantage of their country. They tend to oppose new ideas of reform and only agree to
it if they were already became a victim of the system. Like Basilio who joined Simoun
only after the death of her lover Juli. Also some modern Isagani and Macaraig are still
active in the society today. They are those student leaders who always ready to risk
their lives just for the reform and advancement of modern educational system.

Like Doña Victorina in NOLI ME TANGERE, there is also Paulita Gomez who
always think of nothing else other than her own comfort in life and her status as an elite
in the society. She is willing to dump her lover like Isagani and to marry Pelaez just to
enrich herself and lift her social status, she is known in the modern society as a gold
digger. Rizal even noticed and criticized the ongoing “padrino system” as a form of
corruption of public officials brought about by the Chinese. In his novel, it is depicted as
Quiroga, a Chinese businessman who by means of bribes has been able to smuggled
goods without paying for the specified amount of tax.

Lastly, there is always a Ben Zayb a journalist who used his trade to black mail
and extort government officials for not divulging their corrupt secrets in the media. He
also, receives bribe from other officials for good publication of their names and status as
officers of the government.

As a conclusion to this reaction paper, I must say that this novel EL

FILIBUSTIRISMO is a way darker than its predecessor NOLI ME TANGERE. The
second novel of Rizal is full of hatred and vengeance to the state. This is clearly showed
by Rizal in his attempt to blow the house were a party is being held for the marriage of
Paulina Gomez and Pelaez. That instance of the novel only give the reader the idea of
Rizal’s concept of a violent revolution. That if we always turn to arm struggle to
overthrow and end the oppression of the government we are always bound to fall like
the destiny of Simoun who took a poison to end his life knowing that he was
unsuccessful with his plans. In addition like in NOLI ME TANGERE, we can clearly see
how Rizal emphasized the importance and effect of education to the masses, how it
would eventually free from chains of oppression the slave of ignorance.