RIZAL

MODULE 5
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo

Time Allotment: 9 hrs

Course Instructor: Analie S. Fernando, LPT, MAED
Email Address: [email protected]

COURSE OUTCOMES
1. Discuss the background of the publication of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo;
2. Investigate the impact of both novels to Rizal’s family, Filipino people and the Philippines in
general;
3. Appraise important characters in Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, and their
representation or symbolism in Rizal’s time and at present; and
4. Critically examine the comparison of present Philippine situations to that of Rizal’s time as
highlighted in the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo through completing a retrieval chart.

I. INTRODUCTION

In this lesson, you will learn more about the two novels of Jose Rizal, the Noli Me Tangere
and El Filibusterismo. The background of its publication will be thoroughly discussed as you gain
insight on how these two novels became the most powerful tools against Spanish tyranny in the
Philippines. Also, a lot of social issues were discussed in both novels which are still very relevant
until today.

II. TEACHING - LEARNING OUTCOMES

A. Engage
Activity 1. Reflection

Reflect on the quote ‘The pen is mightier than the sword.’

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B. Explore
Activity 2. Question and Answer

1. How can you relate the saying above to Jose Rizal and his quest for the Philippines to be free
from Spain ? Discuss your answer in a paragraph.
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C. Explain

Noli Me Tangere

The Making of Noli Me Tangere (The Social Cancer)

The bleak winter of 1886 in Berlin was Rizal’s darkest winter because no money arrived
from Calamba and he was flat broke. The diamond ring which his sister, Saturnina, gave him was
in the pawnshop. It was memorable in the life of Rizal for two reasons (1) it was a painful episode
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for he was hungry, sick and despondent in a strange city (2) it brought him great joy after enduring
so much sufferings, because his first novel, Noli Me Tangere came off the press in March, 1887

The Noli Me tangere contains 64 Chapters including the lost chapter and was written in
Spanish. Its title is not originally conceived by Rizal but was taken from the Bible (John 20:17). It
is a novel written by Dr. José Rizal which served as an eye opener and wake up call to the
Filipinos during Rizal’s time. The novel inspires reforms.
Literally translated, the Latin words Noli Me Tángere” means, “touch me not”. Taken from
John 20:17 which the English Standard Version of the Bible translate the passage as: “Jesus said
to Magdalene: “Do not cling to me. For I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my
brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and to your Father and to my God and
your God.”
In one of the Filipino reunions at the house of Pedro Paterno in Madrid on January 2, 1884,
Rizal proposed the writing of a novel about the Philippine society. The group approved the project
but this plan did not materialize. It was in Madrid that Rizal was able to write the first half of the
novel, Noli Me Tangere.

Cover of Noli Me Tangere and its Meaning

 According to Zaide (2008), Noli Me Tangere was a true story of

Philippine conditions during the last decade of Spanish Rule.
The places, the characters, and the situations really exist.

 These works of fiction including the El Filibusterismo, its

sequel, expressed the theme of Philippine Nationalism in a
most profound and dramatic manner to arouse the latent spirits
of a frustrated people.

 The novel provides an inexhaustible source of inspiration for

the solutions to current conditions and problems.

The Characters Symbolism

 Plot of the Novel

Noli Me Tangere is the story of Juan Crisostomo Ibarra, scion of a wealthy family, who
returns home to San Diego from a seven-year education in the German Section of sophisticated
Switzerland. The father of Crisostomo, Don Rafael Ibarra died in prison andwas denied a Christian
burial by Father Damaso, San Diego’s parish priest, because Don Rafael had stopped going to
confession long before the death, and was a subscriber to liberal publication.

Inflamed with a desire to educate the people and bring progress to the hometown,
Crisostomo establishes a school, patterned after the progressive school in Europe. Crisostomo’s
project, though enthusiastically endorsed by the townspeople, is met with skepticism by the old
Scholar Tasio who years before had attempted to do the same thing but failed.

The new parish priest, Father Salvi, also looks at the school disapprovingly, seeing it as a
dangerous threat totheir authority over the natives. During the laying of the school’s cornerstone,
an attempt is made on Ibarra’s life but is saved by Elias, the mysterious boatman who had made
the rescue earlier during a picnic at the lake.

The friars constantly harass and persecute Ibarra at San Diego. At one gathering, the
vilification hurled against the dead father almost provoked Ibarra to kill Father Damaso; but
Crisostomo Ibarra, was restrained by Maria Clara.

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A false rebellion is plotted and through forged documents, Ibarra is implicated as its leader.
Unwittingly, Maria Clara had lent support to overcome the plot by providing them with a specimen
of Ibarra’s signature on the love letter.

Ibarra is imprisoned and later rescued once again by Elias through a banca covered with
zacate and under a barrage of gunfire. Elias is wounded and died for a beloved friend. Ibarra
quietly buries Elias in the wood belonging to the family; then flees the country, leaving the
impression of dying from the civil guard’s bullets.

The distraught Maria Clara is urged by Father Damaso to marry the Spaniard Alfonso
Linares. She refuses and enters the nunnery of the Poor Clares instead.

The Situation in the Philippines as shown in the Noli

 Noli After Its Publication

 The writing of Rizal had tremendous effects to the Filipino especiallyNoli Me Tangerein
which Rizal courageously criticized Philippine life during the 19th Century.

 The themes of the novel revolved around societal issues experienced in the Philippines
under the Spanish colonial rule.

 Through the novel, Rizal boldly spoke out against unjust Spanish colonial exploitation and
agitated for political and social reforms.

 Ironically, these works strongly warned against rebellion to Spain; but,it triggered off the
first Nationalist Uprising in Asia.

 Rizal’s novels are more meaningfully on the studies of political satires for the reform
propaganda.

 Rizal wrote to free the human spirit from deterioration as depicted in the historical situation
from 1877 to 1887.

 The novel provides an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the solutions to conditions
and problems during that time.

 Rizal portrayed in the novel the miserable plight of the Filipino masses in an effort to
convince the Spanish authorities that there was an urgent need for reforms in society, in
the government, and in the Catholic Church.

 Rizal did not put the blame to society’s malaise entirely on the Spaniards; and felt that the
people had an equal share of hypocrisy and indifference.

 It is thus understandable that Spanish friars vehemently prohibited the circulation of the
novel in 1887 when Fray Salvador Font, chair of the censorship commission, outlawed the
reading and possession of Rizal’s novel. Many other friars assessed and judged the book
as pernicious. They enjoined devout Catholics not to read the novel to avoid committing
capital sins. Not only confined in the Philippines, critiques of the novel from Spanish
officials and academics also circulated in Spain. One staunch critic of the novel was the
Spanish academic Vicente Barrantes who wrote several articles in Spanish newspapers
ridiculing Rizal as a “person of contradictions.” Barrantes lamented that Rizal’s lambasting
of the friars and the Spaniards was reflective of the author and telling more about the
Filipinos.

 Many of Rizal’s colleagues in the Propaganda Movement praised this novel. One example
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is Marcelo H. del Pilar who even wrote essays in response to critics of the Noli. Rizal’s
friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt, also an academician, expressed support for the novel.

 As Noli stirred controversy in social circles in nineteenth century Philippines, it is

remarkable to realize that even beyond its time, the novel continued to be a subject of
debate and discussion. One of the earliest translations of the novel was done in French.
Arguably the most circulated versions were the English translations of Charles Derbyshire.
By the 1930’s, Rizal’s Noli had several Spanish editions, translations into English, French,
Japanese and also into several languages in the Philippines including Tagalog, Cebuano,
Waray, Iloko, and Bikol.

 The very controversy that surrounded the passage of the Rizal Law indicated the
relevance of the text in the 1950s and even beyond. In academia, many scholars have
also made it a point to discuss the politics of translation and the nuances of transforming
the text in several forms. Truly, be it about its content, context, or the way it is read or
used, the value of Rizal’s novel is definitely felt in the Philippines.

Noli and the Study of a Colonial Society

A remarkable aspect of Rizal’s Noli lies in its text which espoused the national hero’s
articulations of a social-scientific view of the nineteenth century Philippines.

 The Noli makes an important contribution to the understanding of a colonial society and of
the workings of the Spanish empire in the Philippines.

 The novel portrayed the lives of the characters of diverse positions from which people in
nineteenth century Philippines thought and acted in relation to others.

 Many scholars interpret the Noli as Rizal’s diagnosis of the ills of colonial society as Rizal
assessed the role played by the church, the state, and the people.

 In the Noli, Rizal highlighted some of the ideas on how the Philippine society could be
emancipated from the bondage of colonial rule. Rizal underscored the importance of education
as a powerful tool to achieve progress. However, Rizal also exposed the complexities and
constraints wrought by the colonial condition not only on foreigners, but also on some
misguided Filipinos that contributed to the ills of society.

 As Rizal exposed the vile realities of the context Rizal wrote about and also emphasized
the good qualities of the Filipinos, which needed to be harnessed in order to succeed in the
struggle for emancipation.

 The afterlife of Noli Me Tangere highlights its impact on Philippine society as well as on
disciplines such as literature, history, and the social sciences. This way, the relevance of Rizal
and this first novel was underscored. The Noli, in the end, is not just a literary piece; it is a
political, historical, and social scientific treatise about the conditions in the Philippines during
the late nineteenth century. As such, the novel continues to stimulate discussions up to the
present and its themes remain worthy of debate.

El Filibusterismo

This novel is a sequel to the Noli. It has a little humor, less idealism, and less romance than
the Noli Me Tangere. It is more revolutionary and more tragic than the first novel. It was written in
dedication of the three martyred priests namely Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora
popularly known as GOMBURZA (Don Mariano Gomez, 73 years old; Don Jose Burgos, 35 years
old; Jacinto Zamora, 37 years old) , whose tragic execution left unforgettable imprint in Dr. Rizal’s

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mind. It is a political novel, book of the thought, work of the head and comprise bitterness, hatred,
pain, sorrow and violence.
Dr. Jose Rizal adhere to the political theory of John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau
that a violent revolution should be the last recourse of the aggrieved people. Dr. Rizal believed that
in winning a war, generals of war must combined courage and wisdom. Dr. Jose Rizal opposed the
planned revolution by the Katipuneros because they lacked funds, personnel and ammunition, and
membership was strong among the poor and uneducated; they also lacked military strategies and
there was a need to organize cohesive and disciplined troops. But Rizal counseled Pio Valenzuela
to approach Gen. Antonio Luna to be the ‘go between’ the masses and the educated rich for
financial support.

The Making of El Filibusterismo

Rizal had begun writing El Filibusterismo in October, 1887, while practicing medicine in
Calamba, the following year (1888), in London; changes in the plot and correction some chapters
were made. Dr. Rizal wrote more chapters in Paris and Madrid, and finished the manuscript in
Biarritz on March 29, 1891. Said second novel was done for three years.

On July 5, 1891- Rizal left Brussels for Ghent, a famous university city in Belgium. One of
the reasons why Rizal preferred Ghent was the cost of printing in Ghent was cheaper. F. Meyer-
Van Loo Press (No. 66 Viaanderen Street), a printing shop that give Rizal the lowest quotation for
the publication of the novel, and was willing to print on installment basis. On August 6, 1891, the
printing of the book had to be suspended because Rizal could no longer give the necessary funds
to the printer . Ventura learned of Rizal’s predicament and immediately sent the necessary funds
thus Ventura is coined as the ‘the savior of the Fili’. Finally, on September 18, 1891, El
Filibusterismo came off the press. Rizal immediately sent on this date two printed copies to Hong
Kong—one for Basa and other for Sixto Lopez . Rizal gratefully donated the original manuscript
and an autographed printed copy to Valentin Ventura.

A Barcelona newspaper La Publicidad, published a tribute eulogizing the novel’s original

style which “is comparable only to the sublime Alexander Dumas” and may well be offered as “a
model and a precious jewel in the now decadent literature of Spain” while El Nuevo Regimen, the
liberal Madrid newspaper serialized the novel in its issues of October, 1891

The original manuscript of El Filibusterismo in Rizal’s own handwriting is now preserved in

the Filipiniana Division of the Bureau of Public Libraries, Manila. It consists of 270 pages of long
sheets of paper. Two features in the manuscript do not appear in the printed book, namely: the
FOREWORD and the WARNING. The title page of El Filibusterismo contains an inscription written
by Ferdinand Blumentritt.

The Characters Symbolism

The characters in El Filibusterismo were drawn by Rizal from real life. Padre Florentino was
Father Leoncio Lopez, Rizal’s friend and priest of Calamba; Isagani, the poet was Vicente Ilustre,
Batangueño friend of Rizal in Madrid and Paulita Gomez, the girl who loved Isagani but married
Juanito Pelaez, was Leonor Rivera. Since the novel is a sequel of the Noli, most characters were
retained and new characters were introduced.

Simoun represents the revolutionaries during that time who supported the idea of holding
bloody revolt against the Spanish government. Simoun represents the youth with a simple dream
that one’s education will improve one’s social and economic status in the future and is indifferent
and selfish to the needs of society. Isagani is the symbol of the youth whose love for the country is
great to the point of being branded as idealistic. Isagani is personified a typical Filipino who is
content with living a simple life and symbolizes the natives and farmers whose lands were seized
by the friars, an explanation as to why Filipinos became rebels. Makaraig represented the well-to-
do Filipino youth during the Spanish era who had good dreams for the country. Makaraig’s
character also provided readers a glimpse of how different the rich and the poor were treated

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during that time in society. Paulita Gomez is a caricature of a woman who chooses the best option
for a more stable future. Knowing what is best for the self and to get what Paulita wants, Paulita
would take advantage of admirers. Father Florentino represented the secular Filipino priests in
Rizal’s time.

The Characters

Simoun. Crisóstomo Ibarra reincarnated as a an assignment to a remote place, living in

wealthy jeweler, bent on starting a revolution solitude near the sea.

Basilio.Sisa's son, now an aspiring doctor Huli. Juliana de Dios, the girlfriend of Basilio,
and the youngest daughter of Kabesang Tales
Isagani. Poet and Basilio's best friend;
portrayed as emotional and reactive; Paulita Ben Zayb. Abraham Ibañez is the real name.
Gómez' boyfriend before being dumped for A journalist who sees the self as the only one
fellow student Juanito Peláez thinking in the Philippines

Kabesang Tales. Telesforo Juan de Dios, a Placido Penitente. A student of the University
former cabeza de barangay (barangay head) of Santo Tomas who is always miserable, but
who resurfaced as the feared Luzón bandit controls the temper
Matanglawin (Tagalog for Hawkeye); whose
father, Old Man Selo, dies eventually after Quiroga. A Chinese businessman who dreams
Kabesang Tale’s son, Tano, who became a of being a consul of a Consulate of China in
guardia civil, unknowingly shoots Old Man Selo the Philippines. The one who hid Simoun's
in an encounter weapons in their house

Don Custodio. Custodio de Salazar y Old Man Selo. The father of Kabesang Tales.
Sánchez de Monteredondo, a The one who raised the sick and young Basilio
famous journalist who was asked by the after Sisa died.
students about the Academia de Castellano. In
reality, Don Custodio is quite an ordinary fellow Father Fernandez. Isagani’s priest-friend who
who married a rich woman in order to be a promised to Isagani, that together with the
member of Manila's high society other priests, they will give in to the students'
demands
Paulita Gómez. The girlfriend of Isagani and
the niece of Doña Victorina. Paulita dumped Attorney Pasta. One of the great lawyers of
Isagani and married Juanito Pelaez for a better mid-Hispanic Manila
future.
Captain-General. (no specific name) the
Doña Victorina. The old India who pretended powerful highest official of the Philippines
to be a Peninsular and the wife of the quack
doctor Tiburcio de Espadaña. Padre Sibyla. Hernando de la Sibyla, a
Filipino friar and in the Novel became the vice-
Father Florentino. Isagani's godfather, and a rector of the University of Santo Tomas
secular priest who was engaged to be married, (U.S.T.)
but chose the priesthood instead; and chose

Summary of the Novel

The hero of El Filibusterismo is a rich jeweler named Simoun who was Crisostomo Ibarra of
the Noli, who, with Elias’ help, escaped from the pursuing soldiers at Laguna de Bay. Simoun dug
up the buried treasure, and fled to Cuba. In Cuba, Simoun became rich and befriended many
Spanish officials. After many years, Simoun returned to the Philippine as a free person who is a
powerful figure, not only because of being a rich jeweler, but also as a good friend and adviser of
the governor general.

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Outwardly, Simoun is a friend of Spain but is secretly cherishing a terrible revenge against
the Spanish authorities. Simoun’s two magnificent obsessions are to rescue Maria Clara from the
nunnery of Santa Clara and to foment a revolution against the hated Spanish masters.
The story of El Filibusterismo begins on board the clumsy, roundish shaped steamer Tabo,
so appropriately named. This steamer is sailing upstream the Pasig from Manila to Laguna de Bay.
Among the passengers are Simoun, the rich jeweler; Doña Victorina, the ridiculously pro-Spanish
native woman who is going to Laguna in search of the henpecked husband, Tiburcio de Espadaña,
who has deserted the Doña; Paulita Gomez, Doña Victorina’s beautiful niece; Ben-Zayb (anagram
of Ibañez), a Spanish journalist who writes silly articles about the Filipinos; Padre Sibyla, vice-
rector of the University of Santo Tomas; Padre Camorra, the parish priest of the town of Tiani; Don
Custodio, a pro-spanish Filipino holding a position in the government; Padre Salvi, the thin
Franciscan friar and former cura of San Diego; Padre Irene, a kind friar who was a friend of the
Filipino students; Padre Florentino, a retired scholarly and patriotic Filipino priest; Isagani, a poet-
nephew of Padre Florentino and a lover of Paulita; and Basilio, son of Sisa and promising medical
student, whose medical education is financed by patron, Capitan Tiago.
Simoun, a person of wealth and mystery, is a very close friend and confidante of the
Spanish governor general. Because of great influence in Malacañang, Simoun was called the
“Brown Cardinal” or the “Black Eminence”. By using wealth and political influence, Simoun
encourages corruption in the government, promotes the oppression of the masses, and hastens
the moral degradation of the country so that the people may become desperate and fight. Simoun
smuggles arms into the country with the help of a rich Chinese merchant, Quiroga, who wants very
much to be Chinese consul of Manila. The first attempt to begin the armed uprising did not
materialize because of the sad news that Maria Clara died in the nunnery. In the agonizing
moment of bereavement, Simoun did not give the signal for the outbreak of hostilities.
After a long time of illness brought about by the bitter loss of Maria Clara, Simoun perfects
the plan to overthrow the government. On the occasion of the wedding of Paulita Gomez and
Juanito Pelaez, Simoun gives a wedding gift to them a beautiful lamp. Only Simoun and
confidential associates, Basilio (Sisa’s son who joined his revolutionary cause), know that when the
wick of the lamp burns lower the nitroglycerine, hidden in its secret compartment, will explode,
destroying the house where the wedding feast is going to be held killing all the guests, including
the governor general, the friars, and the government officials. Simultaneously, all the government
buildings in Manila will be blown by Simoun’s followers.
As the wedding feast begins, the poet Isagani, who has been rejected by Paulita because
of liberal ideas, is standing outside the house, watching sorrowfully the merriment inside. Basilio,
who is a friend, warns Isagani to go away because the lightened lamp will soon explode.
Upon hearing the horrible secret of the lamp, Isagani realizes that Paulita was in grave
danger. To save Paulita’s life, Isagani rushes into the house, seizes the lightened lamp, and hurls it
into the river, where it explodes.
The revolutionary plot was thus discovered. Simoun was cornered by the soldiers, but
escaped. Mortally wounded, and carrying the treasure chest, Simoun sought refuge in the home of
Padre Florentino by the sea.
The Spanish authorities, however, learns of Simoun’s presence in the house of Padre
Florentino. Lieutenant Perez of the Guardia Civil informs the priest by letter that they would come
at eight o’clock that night to arrest Simoun.
Simoun eluded arrest by taking poison. The dying Simoun, confesses to Padre Florentino,
revealing self, including the true identity, the dastardly plan to use wealth to avenge the self, and
the sinister aim to destroy friends and enemies.
The confession of the dying Simoun is long and painful. It is already night when Padre
Florentino, wiping the sweat from the wrinkled brow, rises and begins to meditate. Consoling the
dying person, Padre Florentino said: “God will forgive you Señor Simoun. God knows that we are
fallible; and, has seen that you have suffered, and in ordaining that the chastisement for your faults
should come as death from the very ones you have instigated to crime, we can see God’s infinite
mercy. God has frustrated your plans one by one, the best conceived, first by the death of Maria

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Clara, then by a lack of preparation, then in some mysterious way. Let us bow to God’s will and
render thanks!”
Watching Simoun die peacefully with a clear conscience and at peace with God. Padre
Florentino prays for the dead jeweler then takes the treasure chest and throws it into the sea; as
the waves close over the sinking chest.

On Reading ‘Noli’ and ‘Fili’

 Useful aids in reading which employs analysis and synthesis are: kinds of reading
comprehension and questions to be asked in reading a material, learning from reading,
literary theories, identification of writing orientation, kinds of literary devices and different
reading perspective
 The theme of Noli and Fili is ‘social cancer’ and its nucleus lie ‘greed for power’
 Noli Me Tangere is light, humorous and a reflection of the author’s optimism and idealism
while El Filibusterismo is pessimistic and menacing
 The language used in Noli and Fili is Spanish because the novels are meant to be read by
the Filipinos, the authorities in the church , and by the civil government in the Philippines
and in Europe
 Noli Me Tangere deals with the Filipinos’ customs and traditions: the people’s virtues and
vices while El Filibusterismo is a reflection on revolution
 The protagonists or the round characters that possess depth and involvedness are: Ibarra,
Tasio, Sisa and Ma. Clara in Noli; Simoun, Isagani, Tales and Fr. Florentino in Fili
 The antagonists or the flat characters are: Fr. Damaso, Fr. Salve, the Alferez, Doña
Consolacion and Doña Victorina in Noli; Señor Pasta, Basilio and Doña Victorina in Fili
 In Noli Me Tangere, Dr. Jose Rizal describe the following as agent of cultural transmission:
-the Family where strong ties serve as a strong motive for one to seek justice and
avenge the wrong done as shown in the stories of Tales, Basilio, Crispin, Elias and
the Tulesanes
-the school characterized by obscuranticism
-the church which has an unending conflict with the State

Comparison to Noli
The two novels both talk about about how Spaniards oppressed the Filipinos, especially the
abuses of the friars. Noli Me Tangere, is a Latin title meaning“touch me not” refers to the letter of
John 20:17 in King James version of the Bible as Mary Magdalene tried to touch the newly risen
Jesus, who said “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father”. Meanwhile, El
filibusterismo is Spanish title which is known in English as The Reign of Greed. Noli is a novel,
dedicated to our homeland while El fili is a political novel associated with revenge and anger and is
dedicated to GOMBURZA.

Noli is a “work of the heart”. It has freshness, color, humor, lightness, and wit. It contains
64 chapters. Whereas, Fili is a “work of the head”, a book of the thought. It contains bitterness,
hatred, pain, violence, and sorrow. It contains 38 chapters.

Personality and traits Ibarra was an earnest and idealistic young man. Influenced by
European education, Ibarra sought to improve the country; as part of this, Ibarra believed in the
power of education to enact reforms and made efforts to establish a school in San Diego to this
end’ Noli showed a soft spoken, patient, compassionate and idealistic Crisostomo Ibarra while El
Fili featured a different Ibarra who portrayed the angry and vengeful one and disguised as the
wealthy jeweller named Simoun. Noli is written in the idea that would expose the ills of Philippine
society after Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In general Noli is more on the reformist
side of Rizal while El fili is on the revolutionist side.

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Elaborate
Activity 3. Brief Report Writing
Investigate the impact of both novels to Rizal’s family, Filipino people and the
Philippines in general by writing a brief report about it.

III. ASSESSMENT

D. Evaluate
Activity 4. Character Symbolism
List down at least five (5) characters from both novels of Dr. Jose Rizal and identify
their representations during Rizal’s time and at present.

Characters in the Noli Rizal’s time At present

Me Tangere
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Characters in the El
Filibusterismo
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Activity 5: Past and Present

Juxtapose your observations about the contemporary society with what Rizal saw in late
nineteenth century Philippines. In the second column on the table below, write Rizal’s observations
about the aspect mentioned. In the third column, write your own observations of present-day
conditions. You can mention specific examples.

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Rizal’s Observations as Your Observations in the

Aspect of Philippine Depicted in the Present Context
Society Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo

Government and officials

Church and religion

Education

Courtship

Pastimes/hobbies

The rich and the poor

Life in the city

Rights of Women

Marriage

Profession / Work

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