Reflection Paper

Noli Me Tangere

Student Name: Agbay, Marry Nel J.

Course: BTVTed-FSM
Date Submitted: 06/12/2021

1. Noli Me Tangere
Set in the Philippines, the story follows Juan Crisostomo Ibarra, a mestizo
who ventures to revisit his past and watch history play out before his eyes. The
novel was written during the colonization of the Philippines by Spain, and is seen
as a public rebuke of the oppressive ruling government and injustices of the
Catholic priests. There are certain kinds of cancer that are incredibly vulnerable
and sensitive to touch, growths aggravated by even the slightest contact. Rizal
says he often thinks of his country in these terms, stating that he believes the
Philippines suffers from a “social cancer.” And because he wants “good health”
for his nation, he resolves to “reproduce [its] current condition faithfully, without
prejudice” so that he might “lift the veil hiding its ills, and sacrifice everything to
the truth.”

2. Important Characters in the Novel

Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin (Ibarra), María Clara, Father Dámaso,
Elías, Father Salví, Captain Tiago (Don Santiago de los Santos), The Ensign,
Doña Consolación, Don Rafael Ibarra, Crispín, Basilio, Doctor Tiburcio de
Espadaña, La Doctora Victorina de los Reyes de Espadaña, Lt. Guevara, The
Schoolmaster, Don Filipo (Filipo Lino), The Mayor, The Yellow Man, Sisa, Father
Sibyla, Aunt Isabel, Old Tasio (Don Anastasio)

3. Main Ideas of the Novel

3.1 Education- to elevate the country to the highest seat of glory and to develop
the people's mentality. Since education is the foundation of society and a
prerequisite for social progress, Rizal claimed that only through education could
the country be saved from domination.

3.2 Power- The novel indicated how power was abused and how people would
do anything to get it. Noli Me Tangere also showed that not all who are in prison
are sinners, like Don Rafael, who was instead a victim of those in power. The tug
of power between the church and the government is also obvious in the novel.

3.3 Family- Noli Me Tangere” portrays the different aspects of gaining

independence, Jose Rizal focuses on social climbers, abusive power, family
devotion, self sacrifice, and purity and faithfulness.

3.4 Sacrifice- The protagonist of Noli Me Tangere went through many sacrifices
as he believed they are all for a better future for his country and countrymen.
Literature is a mirror of culture, and Rizal penned just what he had hoped his
fellow Filipinos would do for the Philippines to be free.

3.5 Religion- Rizal illustrates the Catholic priests' corruption and their unchecked
power, which doesn't stem from actual religious zeal, but rather from a love of
supremacy that colonization has enabled and encouraged. The Spanish friars'
abuse of power is evident early in Noli Me Tangere.

3.6 Community- It attempts to show how Rizal's novel represented a kind of

hidden resistance that was brought out into the public sphere, in a revolution that
contributed to the fall of Spain's colonial rule.

3.7 Practice- The theme of the novel is to promote nationalism and to accept
change in ourselves that still applies to us today. We must patronize our country
by respecting the law, promoting Philippine culture, and realizing the true goal of
the country by helping each other towards the improvement of the country. It
teaches us the values of wisdom, fighting what is right, and loving our country.
 This novel is being taught in school in order to not repeat the history itself by
learning how to love our country and to empower the youth as the catalyst of
change for our country. Being a true Filipino is what Jose Rizal wants us to be, to
know who we are and what our true goals will make the country flourish.
Colonialism produced tensions that would, roughly a decade after Rizal’s novel
was published, lead Filipino natives to revolt against Spain’s oppressive religious
and governmental bodies in the Philippine Revolution. The Spanish friars’ abuse
of power is evident early in Noli Me Tangere. When Ibarra returns from seven
years in Europe, he discovers that his father Don Rafael who openly criticized the
church and refused to go to confession tangled with the friars in his hometown of
San Diego. In addition to controlling the townspeople with threats of
excommunication, punishment, and accusations of heresy, the friars clash with
their own countrymen Spanish people who had come to the islands as
government workers or military personnel. This is apparent in the seemingly
never-ending feud between Father Salví (Father Dámaso’s successor in San
Diego) and the town’s military ensign.

3.8 Fashion- Rizal’s use of fashion as character motifs helps demonstrate the
deterministic relationship between appearance and social perception. At this
intersection, a self-referential iconography and a Filipino imagined community
were born. Fashion’s iconography echoes throughout the visual arts and
literature, from the Tipos Del Pais of Damian Domingo and his mentee Justiniano
Asuncion to Jose Rizal’s most controversial political novel Noli Me Tangere.
These new voices in Filipino culture solidified a self-referential identity, explicated
in popular media, for those who lay claim to the island archipelago. Before the
Philippines emerged as a nation-state, ‘Filipino’ was an identity whose origins
trace all the way back to daily dress in the 19th Century.

4. What’s the most important thing you learned from Noli Me Tangere?
I have learned that Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere tells us that we should reflect
on our actions and beliefs for our country. The theme of the novel is to promote
 nationalism and to accept change in ourselves still applies to us today. I’ve
learned about the love for the family and love for the country. Paternal love, for
example, is the love of Crisostomo Ibarra to his Father. When he found out that
the burial of his father was unjust. Well, if I was by the side of Crisostomo, I
would give the blessings of what my father deserved, a decent burial for the last
time. Another is the love of Sisa to his sons, Basilio and Crispin, until the last
breath of her life, she was still thinking about his sons. I realized that love for the
family is really unconditional. Additional issues on our political framework are as
dingy as a man who never admitted in his life.

5. What made you curious about knowing the Noli Me Tangere?

I was really curious about this story because of its original title which is
Touch Me Not, so I am digging and searching for this story. I have encountered a
lot of summarized versions but I have seen a book in the private library of my
close teacher, I borrowed it but she gave it to me. I am not really a fan of history
but this story really hooks me up. This story is the wake up call. 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. 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 like corruption,
injustice, poverty, and abuse remain the same problem up to this day.
 6. What is your realization/reflection of Noli Me Tangere?
I realized that Noli Me Tangere, this literary piece, will mark in our hearts
the values that the novel tells us to be a good role model that will benefit our country.
Reading this literary piece will make us realize the true meaning of nationalism and be a
catalyst for change. The theme of the novel is to promote nationalism and to accept
change in ourselves still applies to us today. We must patronize our country by
respecting the law, promoting Philippine culture, and realizing the true goal of the
country by helping each other towards the improvement of the country. It teaches us the
values of wisdom, fighting what is right, and loving our country. This novel is being
taught in school in order to not repeat the history itself by learning how to love our
country and to empower the youth as the catalyst of change for our country. Being a
true Filipino is what Jose Rizal wants us to be, to know who we are and what our true
goals will make the country flourish.