Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not)
by José Rizal
This book is the most important literary work in the Philippines. One hundred twenty-six (126) after it was written,
its message is still relevant to us Filipinos. I have also read a lot of other books written by local authors and, for
me, the quality of Rizal’s writing is still unsurpassed.
"Noli Me Tangere" (Touch Me Not) is a novel of the National Hero of the Philippines, Dr. Jose Rizal. The Latin title
came from the Holy Bible, John 20:17 “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my father.” Biblical scholars
do not know exactly why Jesus told this to Mary when later, He invited Thomas to touch His wound and in
Matthew 28:9, when women saw Him, “they held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him.” They were not told “not
to touch Him.”
However, in the book, this phrase is alluded to by Elias referring to the impending revolution being planned by the
rebels. Through Ibarra, he gives a warning to the Spanish friars for the continuous killings and injustices being
done to the native Filipinos. He says that anytime, at a slight provocation, the revolution will start.
This 1887 novel was originally written in Spanish (first published in Germany). Its Filipino (Tagalog) translation is a
required reading in third year high school throughout the country. The first time I read this was in school year
1978-1979 or more than 3 decades ago. I think the version that we read was the one with red cover and was
translated by Domingo de Guzman (abridged, I think but it retained some Spanish phrases). However, just like my
classmates then, I read it with passing the Pilipino course as my only motivation. I painstakingly memorized the
plot, characters, events that had high probability of being asked in the quizzes and exams. Now, during this
second reading, even after 33 years, I could still recall some names of the characters, some scenes and events. Like
probably all Filipinos who finished third year high, we were all told that this novel caused Dr. Jose Rizal’s death by
firing squad on December 30, 1896 or around 10 years after he started writing this. The Spanish friars banned this
novel in the Philippines because this announced to the whole world the atrocities, injustices, killings and
maltreatments that they were doing then to the native Filipinos who they also derogatorily referred to as indios.
firing squad on December 30, 1896 or around 10 years after he started writing this. The Spanish friars banned this
novel in the Philippines because this announced to the whole world the atrocities, injustices, killings and
maltreatments that they were doing then to the native Filipinos who they also derogatorily referred to as indios.
Rizal’s death was said to be the trigger for the Filipinos to work hard in their fight against the Spaniards. Then their
efforts led to our country’s gaining of our independence from Spain via the Philippine Declaration of
Independence on June 12, 1898. But then, this was after Spain lost to the USA during the Battle of Manila Bay on
May 1, 1898 resulting to the signing of Treaty of Paris between the two countries where Spain sold the Philippines
to the USA to the tune of $20,000,000 (twenty million dollars).
So, did this book really make a big difference considering that the Treaty of Paris was the one that really ended
the Spanish-American war and changed the country’s colonial master from Spain to the USA? Then Rizal was
appointed as the National Hero of the Philippines because Governor-General Howard Taft, during the American
occupation, thought that it would be “nice” for Filipinos to have its own national hero everyone can look up to?
Then since Rizal had no anti-American leanings, Taft handpicked Rizal for the position?
For me, the answer is yes. This book, even if this did not really move mountains and earth for the Philippines, really
helped Filipinos to realize that they were being treated badly by the Spaniards. The Filipinos let the friars' atrocities
pass because the Spaniards also brought Christianity to the islands and these supposedly men of cloth fooled the
Filipinos into believing that they would go to hell if they opposed the friars’ whims and caprices. So, the friars
became powerful and ruled the country for 300 years. Then came Rizal. During one of his dinners in Barcelona, he
suggested to his equally rich male ilustrado friends, that they collectively write a novel to expose the cruelty of the
Spanish friars in the Philippines. They said yes but Rizal did not hear anything from them anymore. So, Rizal wrote
this book all by himself. There was even an account that he sacrificed a lot like he picked cigarette butts from the
street because it was cold in Germany when this book was published and he did not have money to buy even
cigarettes.
The book is well-written. The plot is thick and can be interpreted in many ways. It is a love story not only between
a man and a woman: a rich young unico hijo (only child) Crisostomo Ibarra and his fiancée, also a rich heiress,
Maria Clara/Clarita but also the love of a person to his country. That second type of love is illustrated here by two
characters with two different reasons: Ibarra loves his country because she provides for his happiness while Elias
loves his country despite giving him all his sufferings. These two men also have opposing views on revolution.
Realist Ibarra thinks that it is better for the Philippines to stay under Spanish rule and what he desires is only for
the country to be a province of Spain so that the rights of the Filipinos will be the same as those of the Spaniards.
Idealist Elias, on the other hand, thinks that this is impossible and total secession of the Philippines from Spain is
the only solution to end all the social ills.
Almost all of the many characters are memorable and well developed. The descriptions of the settings are
beautifully detailed, I thought that while reading some of the scenes, I could feel the dusty road, smell the animal
dung, hear the galloping horses, see the crazy mother Sisa wearing her dirty tattered clothes and wandering the
streets mindlessly. There are many poignant and dramatic scenes but I will never forget these two: the first one is
when Sisa sees the ghost of her dead younger son Crispin and the second one is towards the ending when Elias
asks the elder brother Basilio to burn his and Sisa’s body on Christmas Eve. The height of irony. I got goose bumps
while reading these scenes that my 15-year old skin did not experience the first time I read this book 33 years ago.
The Spaniards conquistadores and Americans GIs have long been gone. Although this is contestable, the
Philippines has long been a free country. Let’s say this is true. So, what is the legacy that this book has left for the
present generation of the Filipinos? You see, I think the book still talks to us Filipinos. Rizal believed in the
importance of education as inculcated in his mind by his parents and brother Paciano. He studied abroad, i.e.,
Spain, France and Germany, because his parents felt that the education in the Philippines was not enough. When
he came back, he founded and ran a school for young boys in Dapitan. If Rizal were alive today, he would have
been an educator - probably an owner or dean of a big university, or the secretary of Education or even the
President of the Philippines. He must have surely have been repeatedly saying that the solution to the abject
poverty that is now very much around is this: education of the masses. For me, that’s the most relevant message
this book is telling us at this point in our nation’s journey.
Reminder to all Filipinos in Goodreads who have rated this less than 5 stars. This book caused the death of our
Reminder to all Filipinos in Goodreads who have rated this less than 5 stars. This book caused the death of our
National Hero by firing squad. This book triggered or fanned the 1886 revolution. This book made many Filipinos
to fall down during the many succeeding revolts throughout the country. This book led to our independence. This
book is well-written. Try to read this again now that you are more mature (no longer childish like when you were
in high school) and see the difference. I am sure you will find this better than Divergent, The Hunger Games,
Twilight and the Harry Potter series.|
Dr. Jose Rizal wrote two novels in an attempt to stir the Filipino’s thoughts and emotions- and with great hope
that freedom may be obtained in a peaceful way – without the violence that had claimed many heroic lives. Noli
Me Tangere is the first, followed by El Filibusterismo.
We’ve read this, a long time ago, back in High School. Compulsory reading does not usually reap good harvestbut once the seed was planted, it stays within. We had a very passionate teacher, and she loved Dr. Rizal. She
spoke well in English, Filipino, and Spanish, so translation was never a problem. Whenever we hit a brick wall, she
would make us drill. It was exhausting, sometimes exciting, and often boring- but no one would dare sleep in Mrs.
Abanto’s class, never.
“...for the soil is not ready, it is only sown with discord.”
I believe the Old Sage’s words best described Philippines -before and now. Once, I wanted to ask the national
hero of his thoughts on the Philippines today. Have we achieved his dreams? Is the Philippines any better now
than before he had left us? Are we enjoying the economy and education he fought and died for?
To think of the social cancer disabling us was heartbreaking, but inspirations are not lacking if we but look closely.
The Filipino in us will find them in every child behind us, tagging at our shirt, begging for a peso or a parting. We
will find it in a street child, along Roxas Blvd., just starting to learn the Abakada at the age of 10. We will find it in
every family we see soaking wet treading the flood- or laying on mats at the evacuation centers, hungry and
beaten, but always ready to give you their best smiles. There is no reason to stop and let go.
Now I understand Mrs. Abanto’s passion. Patriotism, resilience, and courage were things we cannot learn in
school, it’s in the very fabric of our Filipino blood. The school’s purpose was to plant the seed of hope that
someday we will understand better. I found treasure in the Lunatics reasoning, a bastion in this ever disputing
country.
“If such should happen, if the enterprise should fail, you would be consoled by the thought that you had done
what was expected of you and thus something would be gained. You would have placed the first stone, you would
have sown the seed, and after the storm had spent itself perhaps some grain would have survived the catastrophe
to grow and save the species from destruction and to serve afterwards as the seed for the sons of the dead sower.
The example may encourage others who are only afraid to begin.”
If it’s lunacy, then so be it.
Original review posted here.
|My third time to read this most important novel ever in the Philippines. The first two, I read in Tagalog (in high
school as a requirement and two years ago as a group read in a book club). This time, I read the English version.
This particular translation is said to be the best because this was written by Soledad Lacson-Locsin who was a
native Spanish speaker and she was 86 years old when she agreed to write this book. Educated at Assumption
Convent, she knew by heart both English and Spanish so she was able to translate this book (originally published
in Spanish) into contemporary English (his son Raul L. Locsin helped him on this) but maintaining the cadence of
Spanish language. The end product is like a book written for today's readers but with the aftertaste of a classic
book by a Latin American author. Think Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Eca de Quiros.
Two years ago, I gave the Tagalog version of this book a perfect rating of 3 stars (I still liked it). Now, despite the
Two years ago, I gave the Tagalog version of this book a perfect rating of 3 stars (I still liked it). Now, despite the
awesome translation of Locsin, I have lowered my appreciation of this book to 4. Why? I attended the Basic
Apologetics Class sponsored by Defensores Fidei and realized that this book was Rizal's personal propaganda
against the Spanish friars that abused his family. Well, maybe he also thought that this would inspire (and it did)
the Filipino people to raise arms against the Mother Spain but first and foremost, in my opinion now, there is
vindictiveness to avenge what the Dominican friars did to his family especially to his aging dear mother. It so
happened that his family was not alone bearing the hardships of being maltreated by some friars so the collective
uprising against Spain happened and culminated to what is known as the The Philippine Revolution of 1896.
All the friars here - Padre Salvi who my friend Po opines to be the cruelest among the villains in the book, Padre
Damaso the acid-tongue womanizer who is the most hated priest in Philippine Literature and Padre Sibyla are
portrayed negatively as if they have nothing good about themselves. Even the seminarian who is with Ibarra and
Maria Clara in the picnic made sexual innuendo to the ladies. I mean, Rizal hated the Spanish friars so much that
he chose to show only their negative sides. This is a worrisome realization because this book, along with the
sequel, El Filibusterismo (2nd reading - 5 stars) are required readings in all high schools here in the Philippines.
This is probably one of the reasons why many Catholics in the country are now fond of criticizing the Catholic
church despite the fact that 85% of the population are still under the Papal's fold.
This doesn't mean though that I have lower respect for this book. I still like it and still see its importance to
Philippine history and our pride as Filipinos. However, we have to take into consideration that Spain also brought
other things like commerce and industry to the Philippines. We also need to take note that definitely not all friars
were bad like these villains in Rizal's novels. There are some, like in F. Sionil's PO-ON (5 stars) who takes care of
the young Istak and plans to send him to the seminary. We need to change our perspective and not limit our view
to the friar's atrocities and excesses. After all, they are human too and priests do commit mistakes just like each of
us. We also have to remember that we need to respect them for their priestly vocation of following the footsteps
of Christ and their human frailties are just but they too are human.
I am not saying that this book should be banned to uplift the image of the Catholic church in the country. Maybe
our teachers should put more caution and present a more balanced view while discussing the book. My teacher
back in high school did not. So for 40+ years my images of Spanish friars were all sex maniacs, corrupt, powercrazy and hooligans.|The pen is mightier than the sword, they say, and it is not often that one has the opportunity
to read a novel that has forged an independence movement. Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) (1887) by José
Rizal is such a book, for although its author advocated reform not independence, the novel was so instrumental in
articulating a Filipino identity that it provoked resistance against the Spanish colonial regime. Ostensibly it is a
love story, but one set against a backdrop of repression and violence. Rizal would be dead within ten years,
executed by firing squad in Manila. But his novel has lived on…
The author’s satirical intent is evident in the very first paragraph:
Towards the end of October, Don Santiago de los Santos, who was generally known as Captain Tiago, gave a
dinner party that, despite its having been announced only that afternoon, which was not his usual practice, was
the topic of every conversation in Bimondo and neighboring areas, and even as far as Intramuros. In those days
Captain Tiago was considered the most liberal of men, and it was known that the doors of his house, like those of
his country, were closed to no one but tradesmen or perhaps a new or daring idea. (p5)
The Spanish authorities who read this book in the 1880s could be in no doubt, then, about this challenge, and
Rizal had the church in his sights too. On the same page his narrator says of Captain Tiago’s house that he doesn’t
think that the owner would have demolished it ‘because this sort of work is usually reserved for God or nature,
which has, it appears, many projects of this type under contract with our government’. The book is a savage
critique of the church, exposing brutality, venality and sexual exploitation of women. The clergy are shown to
encourage ignorance, superstition and social inequity on a grand scale. And above all, the church conspires with
the colonial authorities to ensure acquiescence in the status quo.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/201...
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/201...
A big thank you to KD for sending it to me!|Noli Me Tangere is described on the back cover as ‘The novel that
sparked the Philippine revolution’. Which sounds a bit hyperbolic, but apparently the publication of the novel in
1887 was an important moment- even more so, Rizal’s subsequent execution for rebellion, sedition and
conspiracy.
So it’s a political novel, an unusually early example of a colonial novel written from the perspective of the
colonised. In this case, the main representatives of colonial power are from the church rather than the civil
authorities. That’s not unique- religion has often been an important tool of empire and post-colonial novels are
full of priests and nuns and, above all, church schools. But the Philippines does seem to have been an extreme
case, where the religious institutions were more powerful than the civil authorities.
Which means that the book is peopled with villainous friars — cruel, vindictive, scheming, manipulative,
hypocritical, lustful, oleaginous — and it reminded me of those early gothic novels which always seemed to have
sinister, black-hearted monks in them. Especially since it’s never shy of a bit of melodrama.
In fact, it’s a rather lumpy mixture of melodrama, satire and long, wordy political discussions, and I can’t say all of
it held my attention equally. I liked it most when it was at its most exaggerated — ferociously satirical or floridly
gothic — and I found it fell a bit flat when it aimed for genuine sentiment.
A mixed bag for me, then. Bits of it are genuinely brilliant, though. There’s a scene with gravediggers at work in a
badly over-crowded cemetery which is wonderfully morbid, for example- and a grotesque portrayal of an ageing
Filipina who is so determined to marry a Spaniard and be ‘Spanish’ herself that she marries a useless, feckless man
whose only quality is that in the Philippines his nationality gives him an ersatz respectability, then insists on only
speaking broken Spanish.
Noli Me Tangere is my book from the Philippines for the Read the World challenge.