Rizal El Fili Mi Tangere

Question 1

What does technique and style refer to?

Answer 1

Technique refers to the method and devices that the author uses; Style refers to language.

Question 2

What does “noli me tángere” mean?

Answer 2

Touch me not
Taken from John 20:17 when Mary Magdalene holds on to Jesus and he tells her not to touch him

Question 2

What do the following symbols mean in the cover of Noli?

CROSS
POMELO BLOSSOMS AND LAUREL LEAVES
SILHOUETTE OF A FILIPINA
BURNING TORCH
SUNFLOWERS
BAMBOO STALKS THAT WERE CUTDOWN BUT GREW BACK
A MAN IN A CASSOCK WITH HAIRY FEET
CHAINS
WHIPS
HELMET OF THE GUARDIA CIVIL

Answer 2

CROSS = sufferings
POMELO BLOSSOMS AND LAUREL LEAVES = honor and fidelity
SILHOUETTE OF A FILIPINA = Maria Clara
BURNING TORCH = rage and passion
SUNFLOWERS = enlightenment
BAMBOO STALKS THAT WERE CUTDOWN BUT GREW BACK resilience
A MAN IN A CASSOCK WITH HAIRY FEET = priests using religion in a dirty way
CHAINS = slavery
WHIPS = cruelties
HELMET OF THE GUARDIA CIVIL = arrogance of those in authority

Question 3

What does Rizal promise in the preface of Noli?

Answer 3

“to reproduce the condition (of the country) faithfully, without
discrimination”. He wants to sacrifice “to truth everything”.

Question 4

Where does the theme of Noli come from?

Answer 4

The theme of ‘Noli me Tangere’ comes from the Gospel of John. John tells that when Jesus showed himself after the Resurrection, it was first to Mary Magdalene

Essentially its a symbol for need of distance

Question 4

Who was Ibarra?

Answer 4

(Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin)
Son of a Filipino businessman, Don Rafael Ibarra, he studied in Europe for seven years. Ibarra is also María Clara’s fiancé. Upon his return, Ibarra requested the local government of San Diego to construct a public school to promote education in the town.

Question 5

Who was María Clara?

Answer 5

(María Clara de los Santos y Alba)
She was raised by Capitán Tiago, San Diego’s cabeza de barangay and is the most beautiful and widely celebrated girl in San Diego.

Question 5

What was revealed about Maria Clara in the later parts of the novel?

Answer 5

In the later parts of the novel, María Clara’s identity was revealed as an illegitimate daughter of Father Dámaso, former parish curate of the town, and Doña Pía Alba, wife of Capitán Tiago. In the end she entered local covenant for nuns Beaterio de Santa Clara.

Question 6

Who was Capitán Tiago?

Answer 6

(Don Santiago de los Santos)
is a Filipino businessman and the cabeza de barangay or head of
barangay of the town of San Diego. He is also the known father of
María Clara. He is also said to be a good Catholic, friend of the Spanish government and was considered as a Spanish by colonialists. Capitán Tiago never attended school, so he became a domestic helper of a Dominican friar who taught him informal education. He married Pía Alba from Santa Cruz.

Question 7

Who was Padre Dámaso?

Answer 7

o (Dámaso Verdolagas)
is a Franciscan friar and the former parish curate of San Diego. He is best known as a notorious character who speaks with harsh words and has been a cruel priest during his stay in the town.
He is the real father of María Clara and an enemy of Crisóstomo’s father, Rafael Ibarra. Later, he and María Clara had bitter arguments whether she would marry Alfonso Linares or go to a convent. At the end of the novel, he is again re-assigned to a distant town and is found dead one day.

Question 8

Who was Filosofo Tacio?

Answer 8

(Pilosopo Tasyo)
Seeking for reforms from the government, he expresses his ideals in paper written in a cryptographic alphabet similar from hieroglyphs and Coptic figures hoping “that the future generations maybe able to decipher it” and realized the abuse and oppression done by the conquerors.

His full name is only known as Don Anastacio.

The educated inhabitants of San Diego labeled him as Filosofo Tacio (Tacio the Sage) while others called him as Tacio el Loco (Insane Tacio) due to his exceptional talent for reasoning.

Question 8

Who was Elias?

Answer 8

is Ibarra’s mysterious friend and ally. Elías made his first appearance as a pilot during a picnic of Ibarra and María Clara and her friends. He wants to revolutionize the country and to be freed from Spanish oppression.

Question 8

Chief of the Guardia Civil. Mortal enemy of the priests for power in San Diego and husband of Doña Consolacion.

Answer 8

El Alférez or Alperes

Question 9

What family represented a Filipino family persecuted by the Spanish authorities?

Answer 9

Sisa, Crispín, and Basilio

Narcisa or Sisa is the deranged mother of Basilio and Crispín. Described as beautiful and young, although she loves her children very much, she can not protect them from the beatings of her husband, Pedro

Crispín is Sisa’s 7-year-old son. An altar boy, he was unjustly accused of stealing money from the church. After failing to force Crispín to return the money he allegedly stole, Father Salví and the head sacristan killed him.

Basilio is Sisa’s 10-year-old son. An acolyte tasked to ring the church bells for the Angelus, he faced the dread of losing his younger brother and falling of his mother into insanity.

Question 9

A Dominican friar. He is described as short and has fair skin. He is instructed by an old priest in his order to watch Crisóstomo Ibarra.

Answer 9

Padre Hernando de la Sibyla

Question 10

The Franciscan curate of San Diego, secretly harboring lust for María Clara. He is described to be very thin and sickly. He is willing to kill an innocent child, Crispin, just to get his money back, though there was not enough evidence that it was Crispin who has stolen his 2 onzas.

Answer 10

Padre Bernardo Salví

It is also hinted that his last name, “Salvi” is the shorter form of “Salvi” meaning Salvation, or “Salvi” is short for “Salvaje” meaning bad

Question 11

Wife of the Alférez, nicknamed as la musa de los guardias civiles (The muse of the Civil Guards) or la Alféreza, was a former laundry woman who passes herself as a Peninsular
Best remembered for her abusive treatment of Sisa.

Answer 11

Doña Consolacíon

Question 12

Who was Salomé?

Answer 12

Elías’ sweetheart. She lives in a little house by the lake, and though Elías would like to marry her, he tells her that it would do her or their children no good to be related to a fugitive like himself.

Question 13

What’s an ecclesiastical hierarchy?

Answer 13

The hierarchy of the Catholic Church consists of its bishops, priests, and deacons. In the ecclesiological sense of the term, “hierarchy” strictly means the “holy ordering” of the church, the Body of Christ

Question 13

What was Elias Conflict?

Answer 13

Ibarra was the descendant of Don Pedro, which was basically the main cause of all of his suffering, it made him want to kill him. But my mans was goated and knew homie Ibarra had game, so he risked his life for bro so bro could change the world.

When he jumped from the boat as a diversion, they both agreed to meet on Ibarra’s grandpa’s mausoleum but he died before they could say a final goodbye.

He tells Basilio to dig under the mausoleum for money to go to school before he dies though and tells him to cremate his body in a pyre.

Question 13

What does Maria Clara represent with her ending?

Answer 13

Maria Clara did not really resolve the conflicts within her, she chose to escape, by entering the convent as a nun.

Rightly or wrongly, Maria Clara has been held as the ideal Filipina which, perhaps, is the reason why many Filipinas prefer to be or pretend to prefer being a Maria Clara type with all its dubious virtues.
Many had used the convent as an escape from a world that could not give them happiness or the fulfilment they crave.

Question 14

A close friend of Don Rafael Ibarra. He reveals to Crisóstomo how Don Rafael Ibarra’s death came about.

Answer 14

Teniente Guevara

Question 14

Why was Ibarra Excommunicated?

Answer 14

The death of Ibarra’s father, Don Rafael, prior to his homecoming, and the refusal of a Catholic burial by Padre Damaso, the parish priest, provokes Ibarra into hitting the priest, for which Ibarra is excommunicated. The decree is rescinded, however, when the governor general intervenes.

Question 15

Why did Maria betray Ibarra?

Answer 15

Ibarra’s enemies, particularly Salvi, implicate him in a fake insurrection, though the evidence against him is weak.
Then Maria Clara betrays him to protect a dark family secret, public exposure of which would be ruinous. Ibarra escapes from prison with Elias’s help and confronts her.

She explains why, Ibarra forgives her, and he and Elias flee to the lake. But chased by the Guardia Civil, one dies while the other survives.

Convinced Ibarra’s dead, Maria Clara enters the nunnery,
refusing a marriage arranged by Padre Damaso.

Question 16

What does El Filibusterismo mean?

Answer 16

The reign of Greed

Question 17

Who did Rizal Dedicate Filibusterismo to?

Answer 17

Rizal dedicated El Filibusterismo to the three martyred priests of Cavite mutiny. The execution of the three priests was significant to the title of the novel.

Rizal’s memory seemed to have failed him, though, for Father Gomez was then 73 not 85, Father Burgos 35 not 30 Father Zamora 37 not 35; and the date of execution 17th not 28th.

Question 17

What did rizal confess about the end Noli Mi Tangere after the fact?

Answer 17

He regretted very much having killed Elias instead of Ibarra, reasoning that when he published the Noli his health was very much broken, and was very unsure of being able to write the continuation and speak of a revolution.

Question 18

Where did Rizal Publish Filibusterismo and why?

Answer 18

He published it in Ghent cuz it was cheaper

Question 19

What was Ibarra doing in El Filibusterismo?

Answer 19

Crisostomo Ibarra, under the disguise of a wealthy jeweler named Simoun. Disillusioned by the abuses of the Spanish, Ibarra abandons his pacifist beliefs in order to return to the Philippines and start a violent revolution.

Question 19

What was Basilio doing in El Filibusterismo?

Answer 19

Basilio, now a young man and a skilled medical student, is recruited by Ibarra to aid him in detonating a bomb at a social gathering, signaling the beginning of the revolution.

Question 20

What went wrong in Simoun’s plans?

Answer 20

Basilio warns his friend Isagani. Realizing that the woman he loves is in the building, Isagani throws the bomb into the river, averting the explosion and the revolution. Implicated in these matters, Simoun commits suicide by taking poison and finds resting place at the home of a priest, Father Florentino, who hears his last confession and assures him that not all hope is lost.

Question 20

Who was Padre Camorra?

Answer 20

The lustful parish priest of Tiani, San Diego’s adjacent town who has long time desires for young women. He nearly raped Juli (Basilio’s GF) causing the latter to commit suicide.

Question 21

Who was BEN ZAYB?

Answer 21

The pseudonym of Abraham Ibañez, a journalist who believes he is the “only” one thinking in the Philippines. Ben-Zayb is an anagram of Ybanez, an alternate spelling of his name.

Question 21

Who was Father Florentino?

Answer 21

Isagani’s godfather, and a secular priest; was engaged to be married, but chose to be a priest after being pressured by his mother, the story hinting at the ambivalence of his decision as he chooses an assignment to a remote place, living in solitude near the sea.He took in Don Tiburcio de Espandaña when he was hiding from his wife, Donya Victorina.

Question 22

Differentiate Noli from El

Answer 22

Noli is a romantic novel written from the heart full of feeling and freshness with 64 chapters

El is a political novel written from the head and full of thought littered with bitterness, sorrow, violence, and depth with 34 chapters (38?) (39?)