Rizal's Darkest Winter

Rizal Darkest Winter

The winter of 1886 in Berlin was his darkest
winter .
He lived in poverty because no money arrived
from Calamba and he was flat broke
The diamond ring which sister Saturnina , gave
him was in the pawnshop
He could not pay his landlord .
He had to scrimp , eating only one meal a day.
And that daily meal consisted of bread and
water or some cheap vegetable soup .
Out in far-away Calamba, Paciano tried desperately to
raise money .
He knew his younger brother was in a dire financial
situation in Berlin .
The crops had failed due to the ravages of the locusts.
The sugar collapsed.
Time was of the essence , but poor Paciano was
delayed in raising the necessary funds.
Rizal starved in Berlin and shivered with wintry cold
His health broke down due to lack of proper
nourishment
He began to cough , and he feared that he was going
to be sick with tuberculosis
The bleak winter of 1886 was memorable in
the life of Rizal for two reasons:
First, it was a painful episode for he was
hungry , sick and despondent in a strange city
and,
Second , it brought him great joy , after
enduring so much sufferings, because his first
novel Noli Me Tangere came off the press in
March , 1887.
 Like the legendary Santa Claus, Dr. Maximo
Viola, his friend from Bulacan , arrived in
Berlin at the height of his despondencyand
loaned him needed funds to publish the
novel.
 Idea of Writing a Novel on the
Philippines
His reading of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's
Cabin, which portrays the brutalities of American
slave-owners and the pathetic conditions of the
unfortunate Negro slaves, inspired Dr. Rizal to
prepare a novel that would depict the miseries of his
people under the lash of Spanish tyrants.
He was a student in the Central University of
Madrid.
In a reunion of Filipinos in the Paterno residence in
Madrid on January 2, 1884, Rizal proposed the
writing of a novel about the Philippines by a group of
Filipinos
His proposal was unanimously approved by
those present, among whom were the Paternos
(Pedro, Maximino, and Antonio) , Graciano
Lopez Jaena, Evaristo Aguirre , Eduardo de
Lete, Julio Llorente , Melecio Figueroa , and
Valentin Ventura
Unfortunately, Rizal's project did not materialize.
Those who were expected to collaborate on the
novel did not write anyting.
The novel was designed to cover all phases of
Philippine life. However, almost everybody
wanted to write on women
Rizal was disgusted at such flippancy.
He was more disgusted to see that his
companions, instead of working seriously on
the novel, wasted their time gambling or flirting
with Spanish señoritas
Undaunted by his friends' indfference , ge
detemined to write the novel alone