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Eliora Shopbell
Noli Me Tngere (Latin for "Touch Me Not") is a novel by Filipino writer and activist Jos Rizal and was published during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. It explores perceived inequities in law and practice in terms of the treatment by the ruling government and the Spanish Catholic friars of the resident peoples in the late-19th century.
Originally written by Rizal in Spanish, the book has since been more commonly published and read in the Philippines in either Tagalog (the major indigenous language), or English. The Rizal Law requires Noli and its sequel, El filibusterismo, to be read by all high school students throughout the country. Noli is studied in Grade 9 and El filibusterismo in Grade 10. The two novels are widely considered to be the national epic of the Philippines. They have been adapted in many forms, such as operas, musicals, plays, and other forms of art.
Jos Rizal, a Filipino nationalist and polymath, conceived the idea of writing a novel that would expose the backwardness and lack of progress of Philippine society because of the burden of colonization. According to historian Carlos Quirino, the novel bears similarities in terms of characterization and plot to the Spanish novelist Benito Prez Galds' "Doa Perfecta".[5] Rizal intended to express the way Filipino culture was perceived to be backward, anti-progress, anti-intellectual, and not conducive to the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment. At the time, he was a student of medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid.
Other Filipinos were also working or studying in Madrid which, as the capital of Spain, was the center of culture and universities. At a gathering on January 2, 1884, of friends at the house of Pedro A. Paterno, Rizal proposed that a group of Filipinos should collaborate on a novel about the Philippines. His proposal was unanimously approved by those present, among whom were Pedro, Mximo Viola and Antonio Paterno, Graciano Lpez Jaena, Evaristo Aguirre, Eduardo de Lete, Julio Llorente, and Valentin Ventura. However, they never got into the project. Although agreeing to help, none of the others wrote anything. Initially, Rizal planned for the novel to encompass all phases of Filipino life, but most of his friends, all young males, wanted to write about women. Rizal saw that his companions spent more time gambling and flirting with Spanish women than writing. Because of this, he decided to draft the novel alone.
Crisstomo Ibarra, the mestizo son of the recently deceased Don Rafael Ibarra, is returning to San Diego town in Laguna after seven years of study in Europe. Kapitn Tiago, a family friend, invites him to a reunion party in Manila. At the party, Crisstomo meets Padre Dmaso who was San Diego's parish priest when Crisstomo left for Europe. Dmaso treats Crisstomo with hostility, to the surprise of the young man who regarded the priest as his father's friend. Later, as Crisstomo was walking back to his hotel, Lieutenant Guevara, another friend of his father, informs him that Don Rafael may have been killed for political reasons and Dmaso may have been involved. Guevara warns him to be careful.
The following day, Crisstomo returns to Tiago's home to meet with his childhood sweetheart, Tiago's daughter Mara Clara. As the two flirt and reminisce, Mara reads back to him a part of his farewell letter on his discussion with his father about the state of the country. Ibarra excuses himself eventually as it was time to go to San Diego.
Arriving in San Diego, Crisstomo goes to the cemetery and finds his father's grave desecrated. He seeks out the gravedigger who then tells him that the parish priest had ordered Don Rafael's remains transferred to the Chinese cemetery, but that he threw the corpse into the lake instead out of fear and pity. At that moment, the town's new parish priest, Padre Bernardo Salv, passes by wherein an enraged Crisstomo pushes him to the ground, demanding an explanation; a fearful Salv states that he was only newly assigned to the town but reveals that Padre Dmaso ordered the transfer.
Crisstomo decides to forgive and commits to improvements in his town. He plans to build a private school, believing that his paisanos would benefit from a more modern education than what is offered in the government schools, which were under the influence of the friars. Enjoying widespread support from the locals and Spanish authorities, Crisstomo's project advances quickly. He receives counsel from Don Anastacio, a local philosopher, and recruits a progressive schoolmaster. Construction was set to begin shortly with the cornerstone to be laid in a few weeks during San Diego's town fiesta.
One day, Crisstomo, Mara and their friends go on a picnic along the shores of the Laguna de Ba. They discover that a crocodile had been lurking in the Ibarras' fish pens. The boatman jumps into the water with a knife drawn. Crisstomo follows him and the two subdue the animal together. Elas, the boatman, proclaims himself indebted to Crisstomo.
On the day of the fiesta, Elas warns Crisstomo of a plot to kill him at the cornerstone ceremony. Sure enough, Crisstomo evades injury and the would-be assassin is killed. During the luncheon, an uninvited Padre Dmaso further berates Crisstomo. The other guests hiss for discretion, but Dmaso carries on and insults the memory of Don Rafael. Crisstomo then loses control, strikes the friar unconscious and holds a knife to his neck. Crisstomo tells the guests about Dmaso's schemes that resulted in his father's death, but releases Dmaso when Mara Clara pleads for mercy. Crisstomo is excommunicated from the Church, but has it lifted in Manila through the intercession of the sympathetic captain-general. Returning to San Diego, he finds Mara ill and refusing to see him.
Meanwhile, Elas senses Crisstomo's influence with the government and takes him for a sail so they can talk in private. Elas reveals that a revolutionary group had been trying to recruit him but he stalled in order to get Crisstomo's views first. The conversation shifts to Elas' family history. It turns out that Elas' grandfather, in his youth, worked as a bookkeeper in a Manila office, but one night a fire consumes the office and the Spanish proprietor accuses him of arson. He was prosecuted and jailed; upon release, he was shunned by the community as a dangerous lawbreaker. His wife turned to prostitution to support the family. Their lives were ruined.
Crisstomo says that he cannot help and his school project is his focus. Rebuffed, Elas advises Crisstomo to avoid him in the future, for his own safety. However, Elas returns a few days later to tell him of a rogue uprising planned for that same night. The instigators had used Crisstomo's name in vain to recruit malcontents. The authorities know of the uprising and are prepared to spring a trap on the rebels. Realizing the scheme's repercussions, Crisstomo abandons his school project and enlists Elas in sorting out and destroying documents that may implicate him. Elas obliges, but comes across a name familiar to him: Don Pedro Eibarramendia. Crisstomo says Pedro was his great-grandfather and that they had to shorten his long family name. Elas responds that Eibarramendia was the same Spaniard who accused his grandfather of arson, and thus condemned Elas and his family to misfortune. Elias leaves the house in consternation.
Kapitn Tiago later on hosts a dinner at his riverside house in Manila to celebrate Mara Clara's engagement with Alfonso Linares, a Peninsular who was presented as her new suitor following Crisstomo's excommunication. Present at the party were Padre Salv, Padre Sibyla, Lieutenant Guevarra, and other acquaintances. They spoke of the events in San Diego and Crisstomo's fate. Salv, who lusted after Mara Clara all along and staged the uprising in order to frame Crisstomo, says he requested to be moved to the Convent of the Poor Clares in Manila under the pretense of the San Diego uprising being too much for him.
Guevara outlines how the court came to condemn Crisstomo. In a signed letter he wrote before leaving for Europe, Crisstomo spoke of his father, an alleged rebel who died in prison. Somehow this letter fell into the hands of an enemy, and Crisstomo's handwriting was copied to create recruitment letters for the uprising. The signature on the letters was similar to Crisstomo's seven years before, but not at present day. Crisstomo only had to deny ownership of the signature on the original letter and the case built on the bogus letters would be dismissed. But upon seeing the letter, which was of course his farewell letter to Mara Clara, Crisstomo lost the will to fight the charges, and he is sentenced to be deported. Guevara then approaches Mara who had been listening. Privately but sorrowfully, he congratulates her for her common sense in yielding the letter. Now, she can live a life of peace. Mara is devastated.
Later that evening Crisstomo, having escaped prison with the help of Elas, confronts Mara in secret. Mara admits giving up his letter because Salv found Dmaso's old letters in the San Diego parsonage, letters from Mara's mother who was then pregnant with her and begging Dmaso for an abortion. It turns out that Dmaso was Mara's biological father. Salv promised not to divulge Dmaso's letters in exchange for Crisstomo's farewell letter. Crisstomo forgives her, Mara swears her undying love, and they part with a kiss.
Crisstomo and Elas slip unnoticed through the Estero de Binondo and into the Pasig River. Elas tells Crisstomo that his family treasure is buried at the Ibarra forest in San Diego. Wishing to make restitution, Crisstomo tells Elas to flee with him to a foreign country where they will live as brothers. Elas declines, stating that his fate lies with the country he wishes to reform. Crisstomo then tells him of his own desire for revolution to lengths that even Elas was unwilling to go. Just then, sentries catch up with their boat at the mouth of the Pasig River and pursue them across Laguna de Bay. Elas orders Crisstomo to lie down and to meet him at his family's mausoleum in the forest. Elas then jumps into the water to distract the pursuers and is shot several times.
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