BSAE-2E1

Chapter 7

1. Describe Rizal’s feelings during the first part of his trip abroad.

He was the only Filipino among the ship's thirty-seven passengers; the rest, except for a tall thin Englishman who mumbled but otherwise spoke Spanish quite well, were Spaniards returning to the Peninsula with their families. They had a horde of screaming scampering children who made more noise than "a battalion of charging cavalry". Also, he was a bad sailor. But he soon made friends. He played chess and was delighted when he won. He made sketches of his fellow-passengers, who duly admired them.

2. Describe what Rizal heard from his co-passengers about the Philippines and its government, how was hearing these this possible for a non-Spaniard like Rizal?

Criticisms flowed as never before. Rizal discovered that everyone in his poor country lives in hopes of sucking the blood of the Filipino, friars as well as administrators. There may be exceptions, as they claim, but few and far between. This is the source of great evils and of enmities among those who quarrel over the booty. It was an enlightening experience for the young Rizal, who was meticulously jotting down these impressions in his journal,") somewhat unnerving perhaps, for he would have had few opportunities in the past to listen to this type of Spaniard thinking out loud in his presence. The enforced companionship on board ship tended, as it invariably does, to break down social and racial distinctions, and the apoplectic colonials, nursing their petty grudges and frustrations for all their comfortable savings, can scarcely have remarked the quiet native sitting on the edge of their self-satisfied circle, so shy, so well-behaved in his flannel suit (his only one, cut and sewn by his sister María) so serious and attentive and deferential, yet withal storing the impressions which would emerge as Linares, Espadaña, Ben-Zayb and Father Camorra.

3. Describe Rizal’s experiences in the first few countries he visited.

In Singapore itself he was relentless ; he saw churches, factories, Chinese temples and gardens, colleges, the palace of a Siamese prince with a little iron elephant on a pedestal at the entrance, a hanging bridge, markets and the Botanical Gardens, which disappointed him. He was looking for a zoo and approached Malay. Failing to make him understood, he sketched a cow and asked if there was one about. He had the usual experiences: the driver of his carriage tried to cheat him; he was besieged by beggars and peddlers but purchased only a como and a cane. He had difficulty in making himself understood; his only stroke of luck was finding himself seated in his hotel's dining-room next to a drunken Englishman who spoke French.

4. Describe further Rizal’s spiritually during his travels.

Such pious sentiments are scattered throughout his journal. Yet, in view of the crucial role that the Church was to play in his life and death, we may remark two curious attitudes in this hitherto devout sodalist whom the Jesuits had trained in orthodoxy. The first is an inattentiveness, if not outright indifference, to saints, patron saints or otherwise, so un- typical of his countrymen at that time. Nowhere does he invoke, say, St Roch, St Christopher or the Archangel Raphael, patrons of all travellers, or again, St Joseph, his own saint or Our Lady of Peace and Happy Voyage. His prayers sound almost deist rather than devout, perhaps the first indications of a trend of thought that was to distinguish his religious beliefs in coming years. The second, perhaps parallel, attitude is one of growing curiosity in other religions. At the beginning of the trip he cannot be a more uncompromising Catholic.

5. Describe Rizal’s political observations of other countries with regards to his nationalism.

In Port Said he heard the Marsellaise for the first time (how incredibly typical of the Philippines of his time that he had never been allowed to hear there the mother-song

of revolutions). He found it "really full of enthusiasm, grave, threatening, sad". He also heard a woman's orchestra, saw veiled women and, to the sound of drums, school-children dressed in the Oriental fashion leaving their classes on the backs of burros and mules. Spain was a shock after France. The customs officials had been "very polite" in Marseilles ; at the Spanish frontier the guard treated them with great rudeness. "Barcelona gave me a very disagreeable impression. I had grown accustomed to the graceful and impressive buildings of the other cities I had seen, to courteous and refined manners, having stayed only in beautiful first-class hotels. Now I was entering this city passing precisely on its worst side to arrive at an inn on a narrow street, an inn with a gloomy entrance where one felt only indifference."

6. Describe Rizal’s dreams during his trip.He dreamed that he had inexplicably returned to Kalamba from Galle to visit his

parents, confident that he could still catch the mail boat at Colombo, something which he abruptly realized was impossible. These were dreams that may be said to have expressed the doubts and remorse that were bedevilling him for keeping his trip a secret from his parents. But a third dream was more ominous.

Chapter 8

1. Describe Rizal’s awareness of his own actions, was he consciously being a hero?

- Rizal's "race jealousy" made him a nationalist almost from boyhood, a patriot from his first public poem, but he was nationalist and patriot as a writer and writers are often unaware of the consequences of what they write. What they feel as a private vision, a personal revelation, an intimate emotion, often becomes transformed, to their surprise and sometimes to their dismay and doom, into a public truth. It is not entirely groundless to surmise that "the main purpose" to which Paciano referred, the "more useful things" to which he had "the greater inclination", was to make his name abroad with his writings, just as Juan Luna and Resurrection Hidalgo were doing as painters, a not entirely unreasonable ambition in one who had defeated in competition every other writer in Spanish in Manila. That his writings would necessarily express his nationalism and his patriotism was inevitable, as also that this would attract the suspicion and hostility of the regime.

2. Describe Rizal’s first attempt at becoming a journalist and writer, how this came to be and what became of it.

Shortly after his arrival in Spain, Rizal wrote an article entitled "El amor patrio", which can be rendered as "Love of Country" or "Patriotism", for the Diarion9 Tagalog, a short-lived Manila news- paper. Retana and Palma see in this essay the same in realizations they perceive in "A la juventud filipina"; whether we agree with them or not, it is remarkable in itself for the way, like so many future writings of Rizal, it forecasts his own career. He starts by dedicating his first writings "on foreign soil" to his country, "where slumbers all of a past, and all of a future can be glimpsed". Then he exclaims: "The love of country can never be expunged once it has entered the heart because it bears a divine mark that makes it eternal and imperishable

3. Describe Rizal as a student in Europe.

- He enrolled at the Universidad Central for the course leading to a licentiate in medicine and also took up the course in philosophy and letters. Not content with that, he took lessons in paint- ing and sculpture at the Academia de San Fernando, more lessons in French, English and German at the Madrid Ateneo, and still more lessons in fencing at the schools of Sanz and Carbonen. By September of the same year he was mulling over the idea of "taking the examination in Roman Law so as to qualify for the law course, which here takes seven years, or to give it up and take the examinations only in literature and history so as to enter the course in philosophy and letters, a degree not known there, which after three years would qualify me as a professor". By November he notified his family that he expected to get his degree in medicine in June 1884 and that, if they wanted him to go on to the doctorate, "all you have to do is to advise me ; it would be a matter of a year more and some hundreds of duros for fees".

4. Describe the quality if schools and education in different countries.According to Rizal, the educational system on both Manila and Madrid were

inadequate which is the reason why he didn’t felt satisfied of what he had accomplished. In fact, in his letter to Paciano, he told him that there were four lawyers who graduated from the Royal and Pontifical University with good grades but in Madrid, they were only “Country Pumpkins in a Ballroom”. The Spaniard cannot compare themselves with the French, German and English People. In addition to that, Rizal himself confess frankly that he found himself in a much lower level compared to the people from foreign lands. For him, in order to reach their standards, several years of study, more luck and more application would be needed.

5. What, according to Rizal, was wrong with the educational system?According to Rizal, our educational system has defects which results to the less

advantage that the people gain as they work harder. According to him, the students love to stay in the coffee houses and play billiards rather than focusing on their studies while in school, on the other hand, people in the higher positions display laziness and spend their time in any idle talk. The little incentives that the government give to the studious students might also discourage them to do their best in their education. All of the situations were just the same in Madrid with the only difference that we would be happy if our rules would only leave our students in peace and not bother with them at all.

6. Describe some of Rizal’s fellow Filipinos in Europe and their accomplishments.Rizal had several of his fellow Filipinos in Europe especially during his time in

Madrid. To mention a few, some of them were Graciano Lopez Jaena and Marcello HIllario del Pilar who were his company in the triumvirate of the propaganda movement. Among the three, Jaena arrived at Madrid first. He was five years older than Rizal. He was said to be a medical student who had abandoned his studies, spend thrift, careless of conventions and the company he kept, fickle impulsive, slovenly and an intemperate person. Despite of this undesirable characteristics, Rizal still like him for he was the kind of man whose follies one forgives for their generosity and innocence. Physically, Jaena was described as a person having a moustache which shos that he had Chinese ancestors. He was high cheek boned with inquiring challenge eyes and a humorous mouth. He is in medium high with a heavy Bisayan accent and a slight stutter. On the other hand, del Pilar was described as a hard headed, mordant, sagacious, hounded into exile ferociously lonely for his wife and daughters and Rizal greatest ally and rival.

7. Describe Rizal’s involvement with civic organizations in Europe.When Rizal arrived at Madrid, he eventually became a member of a Circulo

Hispano Filipino, a publication where he contribute or write his articles for publishing. He became one of the most loyal members of his organization. Because of some disagreements happened between the spamaras and the expatriates, the club was in danger to be dissolved. There was a last attempt to keep the club alive. Rizal was asked to contribute verses. Although he made it, he did it with some reservations that’s why Circulo Hispano Filipino last its existence.

8. Describe Rizal’s dream about Leonor Rivera with regards to his love affairs in Europe.

Rizal’s dream about Leonor Rivera made him terribly upset. In his dream, he had returned home unfortunately knowing that Leonor became unfaithful to him in such a degree that there was no mending. This gave him a warning because he had once fallen in love and it seemed to him that he was going to be accepted, but suddenly it made him disappointed because of the unexpected decision of the Leonor.

9. Discuss the political atmosphere in Spain and how this related to Rizal’s speech for Luna and Hidalgo and its effects in the Philippines.

When Rizal was still in Madrid, he surprised on a great difference of the political atmosphere between his country and the Spain. In the Philippines, bigotry came naturally, Spanish friars, bureaucrat and officer ruled with ultimate power over the Filipino citizens. While in Madrid, he found greatly the opposite. Free thinkers and atheists spoke freely and slitingly about his religion and his church. The states authority was at low positions. Liberals are fighting with clericals and the republicans and carliots were working openly for the realization of their political ideas. Because of this, Rizal in his speech, used the masterpiece of Luna and Hidalgo namely the “Spollarium” and “Christian Virgins Exposed to the Mobs” respectively, to show the unstable situation of the humanity in our country and the great injustice, prejudice and fanaticism that were suffering during that time. Rizal’s speech was carried by the Madrid press, until it reached on the Philippines. For this reason, Rizal’s countrymen violent reaction arises. According to Paciano’s letter to Rizal, most Filipinos generally said that it would be better if Rizal should not return in the country because he might put Filipinos lives in danger due to the effect of his speech to the Spaniards.

10. Describe Rizal’s exchange of letters with his family about his notoriety.Rizal had renewed himself towards his notoriety which the pious Doña Teodora

might weep and sigh on her bed, and pain- fully trace her simple counsels of faith and obedient. Three years in the dazzling cities of the Enlightenment, three short years in the heady air of free thought and free inquiry, had sufficed to turn the sodalist singer of Elcano's glory into a nationalist and a rationalist. This is because, Rizal, in his letter had told his parents that he stopped writing, in spite of this he still have enemies. He says that it is so difficult to live without sorrow, but misfortunes do not mean dishonor; misfortunes are welcome when they are the result of avoiding abasement and degradation. He also states there that the best legacy that parents can leave to their children is an upright judgment, generosity in the exercise of our rights, and perseverant in adversity. But the very important thing that Rizal include in his letter was this, “For me religion is the holiest of things, the purest, the most intangible, which escapes all human adulterations, and I think I would be recreant to my duty as a rational being if I were to prostitute my reason and admit what is absurd. I do not believe that God would punish me if I were to try to approach Him using reason and understanding, His own most precious gifts; I believe that to do Him homage, I can do no better than to present myself before Him making use of His- best gifts, just as in appearing before my parents I should wear the best clothes they have given me. if someday I were to get a little of that divine spark called science, I would not hesitate to use it for God and, if I should err or go astray in my reasoning, God will not punish me.”

Chapter 9

1. Describe the back-story to Rizal’s writing the Noli.Rizal exercised his mind and hand through writing the Noli without troubling his

mother’s sleep. It was the Latin echo of Spoliarium. He didn’t told his family about this and later when Pastells was blaming the Noli about the German Protestants, he called his compatriots to witness that he had written half of the novel in Madrid, a fourth part in Paris, and only the remainder in Germany. Rizal’s purpose was, "With the sincerity and impartiality of which a man is capable in looking over his past." he told Pastells, "I have turned my eyes to the fresh years of my youth and I have asked myself if at any time resentment moved the pen that wrote Noli me Tángere, and my memory has answered no. I was still very young, I was quicker to forgive than I am now and, however deep the wounds and they were healed in the end, thanks to the mildness of my character. There were, then, no `festering wounds' or horns that dug deeper and deeper', what there was, was a clear- sighted look at the realities in my native country, the vivid memory of what was happening, and sufficient accuracy in determining the cause of the disease, so that I not only pictured the past but also guessed the future, for even now I see what I called a 'novel' come true so exactly that I can say that I am present at the enactment of my own work and taking part in it."

2. Describe the other novels similar to the Noli.“To picture the past” and “the realities of my native country” this novels are

similar to Noli because of what Hugo had done for Les Mesirables and on what Zola, Daudet and Dickens had done for the wretched of France and England.

3. Describe Rizal’s intentions for writing the Noli.Rizal with a sincerely and impartiality of which a man is capable in looking over

his past. He turned his eyes to the fresh of years of his youth and asking himself at any time resentment moved the pen that wrote Noli Me Tangere and his memory answered no. He said to himself i was still very young, I was quicker to forgive than I am now and believed that however deep the wounds they were healed in the end. There were no festering wounds or horns that dug deeper and deeper, what was there was a clear sighted to look at the realities in my native country, a bright memory of what was happening and to have enough accuracy in determining the cause of the disease, so that I don’t only pictured the past but also guessed the future. And the purpose is to picture the past and realities of my native country.

4. Describe the implications of Rizal’s choice of medium: writing in terms of how this would be understood by the Spanish.

Rizal has put his writings into riddles. He used some characters in his Noli that replicates or shows how Spaniards treated the Filipinos in our own country. In a letter to Blumentritt in 1890 he said that in Manila he had had a long conversation with Faura and the Jesuit had told him that what was wrong with the Noli was that Rizal "had written the truth", and he had added: "You have not written a novel; your book is not a novel at all; you have described the sad conditions of our times."

5. Describe Rizal as a medical student, then as a ‘doctor’ or physician.He never got his doctorate in medicine, although he took and passed the courses

in history of medicine, surgical analysis and normal histology. However he never submitted his doctoral thesis. He was never really a doctor, as the word to be known posterity. He requested only issuance of his licentiate degree. This may be taken as an indication both of Rizal’s true vocation and it has not a medicine. And as a physician he had really only two patients at heart; his country and his mother. For his mother he was determined to specialized ophthalmology.

6. Describe Rizal’s impression of German women.They were tall, short, not very blonde but blonde enough. They are very amiable

and sincere. To his sister Trinidad he wrote the letter that full of praise for the German women whom he found serious, studios and industrious. They don’t mind very much

about clothes, jewelry and they go everywhere walking briskly like men carrying books or baskets, without paying attention to anybody else and intent only on their duties. They are very fond of homework and learn to cook as diligently as they might learn music or painting. They are not afraid of men and care more for the substance of things than for appearances.

7. Describe Rizal’s experience in Germany with the pastor and the priest and how this affected his writing.

Rizal had the chance across a German Protestant pastor, bearded and grave like an Old Testament patriarch, also out for a breath of spring air with his family. They exchanged greetings and quickly became friends. And also Rizal for his part wrote a letter stating that he would never forget how good they had been to him.

8. Discuss the major and the minor characters of Noli.In Noli, Bento was Elias; Carlos was Ibarra; Ninay was Maria Clara; Don

Evaresto as Captain Tiago; the ruin of Carlos is like that of Ibarra, is encompassed by a false denunciation of complicity in a rebellion; like Maria Clara, Ninay also sacrifice her lover for her father and goes to convent, and believing that her lover was dead. The bare plot of “Noli” is indeed a reminiscent of Ninay. The minor characters are really important revealing the realities of the country. Palma is unjust to Rizal when he dismisses them as “mere caricatures” on the contrary they are full length portraits. We need only have to compare the amount of space and detail that Rizal devotes, for instants to Captain Tiago and to Doña Victoria or even to Doña Consolacion, Father Damaso and Sisa, with the vague and hackneyed descriptions of Ibarra, Maria Clara and Elias.

9. Describe the circumstances surrounding the printing and distribution of the Noli.Rizal’s colleagues thought that they recognized many of the characters but it

would be unkind to repeat their conjectures. The one who corrected the proofs of the novel and the one who was with Rizal when he made his final draftwas Dr. Maximo Viola. And Dr. Viola recalls when Rizal told him that “many of his characters were his relatives and friends. Indeed the letter is more of an illustrated travelogue. The printing apparently took considerately less time than the original.

10. Describe the reactions to the Noli.The one of most extraordinary things about the Noli is that withal it changed the

history of the nation. Compliments were to be expected from his friends and Rizal duly received them including a letter from Regidor in London who who signed himself “the Prescribed” and evidently saw himself in Ibarra. And there were attacks not long in country. It was signed by a friar whose start exclaiming when Rizal had already returned to Philippines. The special committee of the facilities of the University of Santo Tomas examined the novel under the request of the Archbishop, the Dominican Pedro Payo and it was found it heretical, impious and scandalous in its religious aspect and unpatriotic, subversive of public order and harmful to Spanish government. This time, judgement was rendered by Friar Salvador Font who recommended that “the importation, reproduction and circulation of this perricous book” be absolutely prohibited.

Chapter 10

1. Describe the circumstances regarding Rizal’s wanting to go home.

Rizal misses his home in the Philippines so much which made him want to go home. But due to some discrepancies, he just couldn’t go home because there’s no assurance to the safety of his old parents in the future.

2. Describe Blumentritt, how he and Rizal came to be friends.Rizal heard in Heidelberg that a professor Blumentritt was studying Tagalog and

published some works using the language. This news aroused the curiosity of the lonesome but fiercely proud Rizal for the professor. He sent “a valuable work” and exchanged letters that ignite the friendship.

3. Describe Blumentritt’s comparison of Germans and inhabitants of the Philippines.Blumentritt made a study between the Germans and the inhabitants of the

Philippines. The result was strikingly shocking when he found out that the only difference was, the inhabitants of the Philippines have heartfelt courtesy, hospitality and they differ in eastward appearance.

4. Describe Rizal’s visit to Blumentritt.Rizal and Viola found Blumentritt waiting at the station; they were taken to their

hotel, and then bundled off to the school-master's own house where Frau Blumentritt (he had married his landlord's daughter Rosa Muller) had laid out a lavish meal for them. A friendship by correspondence does not always improve upon personal acquaintance; happily enough, Rizal and Blumentritt got on remarkably well. Viola was to recall that every morning the schoolmaster would call for them at their hotel after breakfast and take them to visit museums and see the sights of the town; every night they would have dinner at the Blumentritts, and then their host would walk them back to their hotel. When Blumentritt could not get away from his duties, his place was taken by a friend, Dr. Robert Klutschak.

5. Describe Rizal’s stay in Europe in terms of his finances.During Rizal’s stay in Europe, his scant allowance was only fifty pesos and is

insufficient. Rizal’s experience at Europe was a great suffering. He tried to supplement his allowance but he didn’t succeed in making money. The following year, 1885, when there was a clalem outbreak Rizal saw an opportunity to gain money as a doctor and that will offer his medical services in town where there are no doctors. This job may give him twelve pesos a day but without food and lodging. But Rizal was doubtful about the job because the Spanish authorities could only give seventy-one pesos a day and no one even sure if that would be paid and so he gave it up.

6. Describe Rizal’s arrival.In the night of the 5th day of August 1887, Rizal finally arrived in his homeland

and he saw his family. There was a great rejoicing when they saw each other again, tears of joy were expressed and Rizal had to answer ten thousand questions at a time. Laughter’s were all over the place.

7. Describe the reception of Rizal by the peasants.Rizal sees the peasants of our country suffering; he wrote to Blumentritt that he

would have a very different idea of Catholicism in the Philippines. Rizal have had the opportunity of comparing religions in Europe : Rizal have found Christianity full of grandeur, divine, and Catholicism attractive, poetic, Christianity itself made poetical and beautiful, more beautiful than insipid Protestantism. But our peasants in the Philippines do not know the difference.

8. Describe the political climate in the Philippines.A uniform system of personal taxation applicable to Spaniards and Filipinos alike

had been substituted for the traditional tribute with its racial and class distinctions, and forced labor reduced from forty to fifteen days a year with the privilege of exemption for the higher tax-payers, again without racial distinction, so that, to the scandal and outrage of the racists, a Spaniard might be compelled by the state to wield pick and shovel if he did not pay a sufficiently high rate of personal tax, while a Filipino with enough money to afford it could buy the services of a substitute. In 1885 justices of the peace were

appointed to take over the administration of municipal justice from the mayors, and in the following year an identical separation of powers was en- forced between provincial governors and judges of first instance. In 1887 the Spanish Penal Code was extended to the Philippines; in 1889, the Spanish Code of Commerce, the law on administrative litigation and, which drove the absolutists to fury, the Civil Code of Spain except for the provisions on a civil registry and civil marriage, the first of which was deemed impracticable in the Philippines because of the shortage of qualified personnel and suitable facilities, and the second because of the stern opposition of the Church."

9. Discuss the trouble of the hacienda in Kalamba.Hacienda in Kalamba, had not been going well due to the fact that the price of

the sugar had gone down. Until such time that the hacienda lost Php 3000 on their capital and a debt of Php 4000 more because of new machinery.

BSAE-2E1

Chapter 7

7. Describe Rizal’s feelings during the first part of his trip abroad.

He was the only Filipino among the ship's thirty-seven passengers; the rest, except for a tall thin Englishman who mumbled but otherwise spoke Spanish quite well, were Spaniards returning to the Peninsula with their families. They had a horde of screaming scampering children who made more noise than "a battalion of charging cavalry". Also, he was a bad sailor. But he soon made friends. He played chess and was delighted when he won. He made sketches of his fellow-passengers, who duly admired them.

8. Describe what Rizal heard from his co-passengers about the Philippines and its government, how was hearing these this possible for a non-Spaniard like Rizal?

Criticisms flowed as never before. Rizal discovered that everyone in his poor country lives in hopes of sucking the blood of the Filipino, friars as well as administrators. There may be exceptions, as they claim, but few and far between. This is the source of great evils and of enmities among those who quarrel over the booty. It was an enlightening experience for the young Rizal, who was meticulously jotting down these impressions in his journal,") somewhat unnerving perhaps, for he would have had few opportunities in the past to listen to this type of Spaniard thinking out loud in his presence. The enforced companionship on board ship tended, as it invariably does, to break down social and racial distinctions, and the apoplectic colonials, nursing their petty grudges and frustrations for all their comfortable savings, can scarcely have remarked the quiet native sitting on the edge of their self-satisfied circle, so shy, so well-behaved in his flannel suit (his only one, cut and sewn by his sister María) so serious and attentive and deferential, yet withal storing the impressions which would emerge as Linares, Espadaña, Ben-Zayb and Father Camorra.

9. Describe Rizal’s experiences in the first few countries he visited.

In Singapore itself he was relentless ; he saw churches, factories, Chinese temples and gardens, colleges, the palace of a Siamese prince with a little iron elephant on a pedestal at the entrance, a hanging bridge, markets and the Botanical Gardens, which disappointed him. He was looking for a zoo and approached Malay. Failing to make him understood, he sketched a cow and asked if there was one about. He had the usual experiences: the driver of his carriage tried to cheat him; he was besieged by beggars and peddlers but purchased only a como and a cane. He had difficulty in making himself understood; his only stroke of luck was finding himself seated in his hotel's dining-room next to a drunken Englishman who spoke French.

10. Describe further Rizal’s spiritually during his travels.

Such pious sentiments are scattered throughout his journal. Yet, in view of the crucial role that the Church was to play in his life and death, we may remark two curious attitudes in this hitherto devout sodalist whom the Jesuits had trained in orthodoxy. The first is an inattentiveness, if not outright indifference, to saints, patron saints or otherwise, so un- typical of his countrymen at that time. Nowhere does he invoke, say, St Roch, St Christopher or the Archangel Raphael, patrons of all travellers, or again, St Joseph, his own saint or Our Lady of Peace and Happy Voyage. His prayers sound almost deist rather than devout, perhaps the first indications of a trend of thought that was to distinguish his religious beliefs in coming years. The second, perhaps parallel, attitude is one of growing curiosity in other religions. At the beginning of the trip he cannot be a more uncompromising Catholic.

11. Describe Rizal’s political observations of other countries with regards to his nationalism.

In Port Said he heard the Marsellaise for the first time (how incredibly typical of the Philippines of his time that he had never been allowed to hear there the mother-song of revolutions). He found it "really full of enthusiasm, grave, threatening, sad". He also heard a woman's orchestra, saw veiled women and, to the sound of drums, school-children dressed in the Oriental fashion leaving their classes on the backs of burros and mules. Spain was a shock after France. The customs officials had been "very polite" in Marseilles ; at the Spanish frontier the guard treated them with great rudeness. "Barcelona gave me a very disagreeable impression. I had grown accustomed to the graceful and impressive buildings of the other cities I had seen, to courteous and refined manners, having stayed only in beautiful first-class hotels. Now I was entering this city passing precisely on its worst side to arrive at an inn on a narrow street, an inn with a gloomy entrance where one felt only indifference."

12. Describe Rizal’s dreams during his trip.He dreamed that he had inexplicably returned to Kalamba from Galle to visit his

parents, confident that he could still catch the mail boat at Colombo, something which he abruptly realized was impossible. These were dreams that may be said to have expressed the doubts and remorse that were bedevilling him for keeping his trip a secret from his parents. But a third dream was more ominous.

Chapter 8

2. Describe Rizal’s awareness of his own actions, was he consciously being a hero?

- Rizal's "race jealousy" made him a nationalist almost from boyhood, a patriot from his first public poem, but he was nationalist and patriot as a writer and writers are often unaware of the consequences of what they write. What they feel as a private vision, a personal revelation, an intimate emotion, often becomes transformed, to their surprise and sometimes to their dismay and doom, into a public truth. It is not entirely groundless to surmise that "the main purpose" to which Paciano referred, the "more useful things" to which he had "the greater inclination", was to make his name abroad with his writings, just as Juan Luna and Resurrection Hidalgo were doing as painters, a not entirely unreasonable ambition in one who had defeated in competition every other writer in Spanish in Manila. That his writings would necessarily express his nationalism and his patriotism was inevitable, as also that this would attract the suspicion and hostility of the regime.

2. Describe Rizal’s first attempt at becoming a journalist and writer, how this came to be and what became of it.

Shortly after his arrival in Spain, Rizal wrote an article entitled "El amor patrio", which can be rendered as "Love of Country" or "Patriotism", for the Diarion9 Tagalog, a short-lived Manila news- paper. Retana and Palma see in this essay the same in realizations they perceive in "A la juventud filipina"; whether we agree with them or not, it is remarkable in itself for the way, like so many future writings of Rizal, it forecasts his own career. He starts by dedicating his first writings "on foreign soil" to his country, "where slumbers all of a past, and all of a future can be glimpsed". Then he exclaims: "The love of country can never be expunged once it has entered the heart because it bears a divine mark that makes it eternal and imperishable

3. Describe Rizal as a student in Europe.

- He enrolled at the Universidad Central for the course leading to a licentiate in medicine and also took up the course in philosophy and letters. Not content with that, he took lessons in paint- ing and sculpture at the Academia de San Fernando, more lessons in French, English and German at the Madrid Ateneo, and still more lessons in fencing at the schools of Sanz and Carbonen. By September of the same year he was mulling over the idea of "taking the examination in Roman Law so as to qualify for the law course, which here takes seven years, or to give it up and take the examinations only in literature and history so as to enter the course in philosophy and letters, a degree not

known there, which after three years would qualify me as a professor". By November he notified his family that he expected to get his degree in medicine in June 1884 and that, if they wanted him to go on to the doctorate, "all you have to do is to advise me ; it would be a matter of a year more and some hundreds of duros for fees".

11. Describe the quality if schools and education in different countries.According to Rizal, the educational system on both Manila and Madrid were

inadequate which is the reason why he didn’t felt satisfied of what he had accomplished. In fact, in his letter to Paciano, he told him that there were four lawyers who graduated from the Royal and Pontifical University with good grades but in Madrid, they were only “Country Pumpkins in a Ballroom”. The Spaniard cannot compare themselves with the French, German and English People. In addition to that, Rizal himself confess frankly that he found himself in a much lower level compared to the people from foreign lands. For him, in order to reach their standards, several years of study, more luck and more application would be needed.

12. What, according to Rizal, was wrong with the educational system?According to Rizal, our educational system has defects which results to the less

advantage that the people gain as they work harder. According to him, the students love to stay in the coffee houses and play billiards rather than focusing on their studies while in school, on the other hand, people in the higher positions display laziness and spend their time in any idle talk. The little incentives that the government give to the studious students might also discourage them to do their best in their education. All of the situations were just the same in Madrid with the only difference that we would be happy if our rules would only leave our students in peace and not bother with them at all.

13. Describe some of Rizal’s fellow Filipinos in Europe and their accomplishments.Rizal had several of his fellow Filipinos in Europe especially during his time in

Madrid. To mention a few, some of them were Graciano Lopez Jaena and Marcello HIllario del Pilar who were his company in the triumvirate of the propaganda movement. Among the three, Jaena arrived at Madrid first. He was five years older than Rizal. He was said to be a medical student who had abandoned his studies, spend thrift, careless of conventions and the company he kept, fickle impulsive, slovenly and an intemperate person. Despite of this undesirable characteristics, Rizal still like him for he was the kind of man whose follies one forgives for their generosity and innocence. Physically, Jaena was described as a person having a moustache which shos that he had Chinese ancestors. He was high cheek boned with inquiring challenge eyes and a humorous mouth. He is in medium high with a heavy Bisayan accent and a slight stutter. On the other hand, del Pilar was described as a hard headed, mordant, sagacious, hounded into exile ferociously lonely for his wife and daughters and Rizal greatest ally and rival.

14. Describe Rizal’s involvement with civic organizations in Europe.When Rizal arrived at Madrid, he eventually became a member of a Circulo

Hispano Filipino, a publication where he contribute or write his articles for publishing. He became one of the most loyal members of his organization. Because of some disagreements happened between the spamaras and the expatriates, the club was in danger to be dissolved. There was a last attempt to keep the club alive. Rizal was asked to contribute verses. Although he made it, he did it with some reservations that’s why Circulo Hispano Filipino last its existence.

15. Describe Rizal’s dream about Leonor Rivera with regards to his love affairs in Europe.

Rizal’s dream about Leonor Rivera made him terribly upset. In his dream, he had returned home unfortunately knowing that Leonor became unfaithful to him in such a degree that there was no mending. This gave him a warning because he had once fallen in love and it seemed to him that he was going to be accepted, but suddenly it made him disappointed because of the unexpected decision of the Leonor.

16. Discuss the political atmosphere in Spain and how this related to Rizal’s speech for Luna and Hidalgo and its effects in the Philippines.

When Rizal was still in Madrid, he surprised on a great difference of the political atmosphere between his country and the Spain. In the Philippines, bigotry came naturally, Spanish friars, bureaucrat and officer ruled with ultimate power over the Filipino citizens. While in Madrid, he found greatly the opposite. Free thinkers and atheists spoke freely and slitingly about his religion and his church. The states authority was at low positions. Liberals are fighting with clericals and the republicans and carliots were working openly for the realization of their political ideas. Because of this, Rizal in his speech, used the masterpiece of Luna and Hidalgo namely the “Spollarium” and “Christian Virgins Exposed to the Mobs” respectively, to show the unstable situation of the humanity in our country and the great injustice, prejudice and fanaticism that were suffering during that time. Rizal’s speech was carried by the Madrid press, until it reached on the Philippines. For this reason, Rizal’s countrymen violent reaction arises. According to Paciano’s letter to Rizal, most Filipinos generally said that it would be better if Rizal should not return in the country because he might put Filipinos lives in danger due to the effect of his speech to the Spaniards.

17. Describe Rizal’s exchange of letters with his family about his notoriety.Rizal had renewed himself towards his notoriety which the pious Doña Teodora

might weep and sigh on her bed, and pain- fully trace her simple counsels of faith and obedient. Three years in the dazzling cities of the Enlightenment, three short years in the heady air of free thought and free inquiry, had sufficed to turn the sodalist singer of Elcano's glory into a nationalist and a rationalist. This is because, Rizal, in his letter had told his parents that he stopped writing, in spite of this he still have enemies. He says that it is so difficult to live without sorrow, but misfortunes do not mean dishonor; misfortunes are welcome when they are the result of avoiding abasement and degradation. He also states there that the best legacy that parents can leave to their children is an upright judgment, generosity in the exercise of our rights, and perseverant in adversity. But the very important thing that Rizal include in his letter was this, “For me religion is the holiest of things, the purest, the most intangible, which escapes all human adulterations, and I think I would be recreant to my duty as a rational being if I were to prostitute my reason and admit what is absurd. I do not believe that God would punish me if I were to try to approach Him using reason and understanding, His own most precious gifts; I believe that to do Him homage, I can do no better than to present myself before Him making use of His- best gifts, just as in appearing before my parents I should wear the best clothes they have given me. if someday I were to get a little of that divine spark called science, I would not hesitate to use it for God and, if I should err or go astray in my reasoning, God will not punish me.”

Chapter 9

11. Describe the back-story to Rizal’s writing the Noli.Rizal exercised his mind and hand through writing the Noli without troubling his

mother’s sleep. It was the Latin echo of Spoliarium. He didn’t told his family about this and later when Pastells was blaming the Noli about the German Protestants, he called his compatriots to witness that he had written half of the novel in Madrid, a fourth part in Paris, and only the remainder in Germany. Rizal’s purpose was, "With the sincerity and impartiality of which a man is capable in looking over his past." he told Pastells, "I have turned my eyes to the fresh years of my youth and I have asked myself if at any time resentment moved the pen that wrote Noli me Tángere, and my memory has answered no. I was still very young, I was quicker to forgive than I am now and, however deep the wounds and they were healed in the end, thanks to the mildness of my character. There were, then, no `festering wounds' or horns that dug deeper and deeper', what there was, was a clear- sighted look at the realities in my native country, the vivid memory of what was happening, and sufficient accuracy in determining the cause of the disease, so that I not only pictured the past but also guessed the future, for even now I see what I called a 'novel' come true so exactly that I can say that I am present at the enactment of my own work and taking part in it."

12. Describe the other novels similar to the Noli.“To picture the past” and “the realities of my native country” this novels are

similar to Noli because of what Hugo had done for Les Mesirables and on what Zola, Daudet and Dickens had done for the wretched of France and England.

13. Describe Rizal’s intentions for writing the Noli.Rizal with a sincerely and impartiality of which a man is capable in looking over

his past. He turned his eyes to the fresh of years of his youth and asking himself at any time resentment moved the pen that wrote Noli Me Tangere and his memory answered no. He said to himself i was still very young, I was quicker to forgive than I am now and believed that however deep the wounds they were healed in the end. There were no festering wounds or horns that dug deeper and deeper, what was there was a clear sighted to look at the realities in my native country, a bright memory of what was happening and to have enough accuracy in determining the cause of the disease, so that I don’t only pictured the past but also guessed the future. And the purpose is to picture the past and realities of my native country.

14. Describe the implications of Rizal’s choice of medium: writing in terms of how this would be understood by the Spanish.

Rizal has put his writings into riddles. He used some characters in his Noli that replicates or shows how Spaniards treated the Filipinos in our own country. In a letter to

Blumentritt in 1890 he said that in Manila he had had a long conversation with Faura and the Jesuit had told him that what was wrong with the Noli was that Rizal "had written the truth", and he had added: "You have not written a novel; your book is not a novel at all; you have described the sad conditions of our times."

15. Describe Rizal as a medical student, then as a ‘doctor’ or physician.He never got his doctorate in medicine, although he took and passed the courses

in history of medicine, surgical analysis and normal histology. However he never submitted his doctoral thesis. He was never really a doctor, as the word to be known posterity. He requested only issuance of his licentiate degree. This may be taken as an indication both of Rizal’s true vocation and it has not a medicine. And as a physician he had really only two patients at heart; his country and his mother. For his mother he was determined to specialized ophthalmology.

16. Describe Rizal’s impression of German women.They were tall, short, not very blonde but blonde enough. They are very amiable

and sincere. To his sister Trinidad he wrote the letter that full of praise for the German women whom he found serious, studios and industrious. They don’t mind very much about clothes, jewelry and they go everywhere walking briskly like men carrying books or baskets, without paying attention to anybody else and intent only on their duties. They are very fond of homework and learn to cook as diligently as they might learn music or painting. They are not afraid of men and care more for the substance of things than for appearances.

17. Describe Rizal’s experience in Germany with the pastor and the priest and how this affected his writing.

Rizal had the chance across a German Protestant pastor, bearded and grave like an Old Testament patriarch, also out for a breath of spring air with his family. They exchanged greetings and quickly became friends. And also Rizal for his part wrote a letter stating that he would never forget how good they had been to him.

18. Discuss the major and the minor characters of Noli.In Noli, Bento was Elias; Carlos was Ibarra; Ninay was Maria Clara; Don

Evaresto as Captain Tiago; the ruin of Carlos is like that of Ibarra, is encompassed by a false denunciation of complicity in a rebellion; like Maria Clara, Ninay also sacrifice her lover for her father and goes to convent, and believing that her lover was dead. The bare plot of “Noli” is indeed a reminiscent of Ninay. The minor characters are really important revealing the realities of the country. Palma is unjust to Rizal when he dismisses them as “mere caricatures” on the contrary they are full length portraits. We need only have to compare the amount of space and detail that Rizal devotes, for instants to Captain Tiago and to Doña Victoria or even to Doña Consolacion, Father Damaso and Sisa, with the vague and hackneyed descriptions of Ibarra, Maria Clara and Elias.

19. Describe the circumstances surrounding the printing and distribution of the Noli.Rizal’s colleagues thought that they recognized many of the characters but it

would be unkind to repeat their conjectures. The one who corrected the proofs of the novel and the one who was with Rizal when he made his final draftwas Dr. Maximo Viola. And Dr. Viola recalls when Rizal told him that “many of his characters were his relatives and friends. Indeed the letter is more of an illustrated travelogue. The printing apparently took considerately less time than the original.

20. Describe the reactions to the Noli.The one of most extraordinary things about the Noli is that withal it changed the

history of the nation. Compliments were to be expected from his friends and Rizal duly received them including a letter from Regidor in London who who signed himself “the Prescribed” and evidently saw himself in Ibarra. And there were attacks not long in country. It was signed by a friar whose start exclaiming when Rizal had already returned to Philippines. The special committee of the facilities of the University of Santo Tomas examined the novel under the request of the Archbishop, the Dominican Pedro Payo and it was found it heretical, impious and scandalous in its religious aspect and unpatriotic, subversive of public order and harmful to Spanish government. This time, judgement was rendered by Friar Salvador Font who recommended that “the importation, reproduction and circulation of this perricous book” be absolutely prohibited.

Chapter 10

10. Describe the circumstances regarding Rizal’s wanting to go home.

Rizal misses his home in the Philippines so much which made him want to go home. But due to some discrepancies, he just couldn’t go home because there’s no assurance to the safety of his old parents in the future.

11. Describe Blumentritt, how he and Rizal came to be friends.Rizal heard in Heidelberg that a professor Blumentritt was studying Tagalog and

published some works using the language. This news aroused the curiosity of the lonesome but fiercely proud Rizal for the professor. He sent “a valuable work” and exchanged letters that ignite the friendship.

12. Describe Blumentritt’s comparison of Germans and inhabitants of the Philippines.Blumentritt made a study between the Germans and the inhabitants of the

Philippines. The result was strikingly shocking when he found out that the only difference was, the inhabitants of the Philippines have heartfelt courtesy, hospitality and they differ in eastward appearance.

13. Describe Rizal’s visit to Blumentritt.Rizal and Viola found Blumentritt waiting at the station; they were taken to their

hotel, and then bundled off to the school-master's own house where Frau Blumentritt (he had married his landlord's daughter Rosa Muller) had laid out a lavish meal for them. A friendship by correspondence does not always improve upon personal acquaintance; happily enough, Rizal and Blumentritt got on remarkably well. Viola was to recall that every morning the schoolmaster would call for them at their hotel after breakfast and take them to visit museums and see the sights of the town; every night they would have dinner at the Blumentritts, and then their host would walk them back to their hotel. When Blumentritt could not get away from his duties, his place was taken by a friend, Dr. Robert Klutschak.

14. Describe Rizal’s stay in Europe in terms of his finances.During Rizal’s stay in Europe, his scant allowance was only fifty pesos and is

insufficient. Rizal’s experience at Europe was a great suffering. He tried to supplement his allowance but he didn’t succeed in making money. The following year, 1885, when there was a clalem outbreak Rizal saw an opportunity to gain money as a doctor and that will offer his medical services in town where there are no doctors. This job may give him twelve pesos a day but without food and lodging. But Rizal was doubtful about the job because the Spanish authorities could only give seventy-one pesos a day and no one even sure if that would be paid and so he gave it up.

15. Describe Rizal’s arrival.In the night of the 5th day of August 1887, Rizal finally arrived in his homeland

and he saw his family. There was a great rejoicing when they saw each other again, tears of joy were expressed and Rizal had to answer ten thousand questions at a time. Laughter’s were all over the place.

16. Describe the reception of Rizal by the peasants.Rizal sees the peasants of our country suffering; he wrote to Blumentritt that he

would have a very different idea of Catholicism in the Philippines. Rizal have had the opportunity of comparing religions in Europe : Rizal have found Christianity full of grandeur, divine, and Catholicism attractive, poetic, Christianity itself made poetical and beautiful, more beautiful than insipid Protestantism. But our peasants in the Philippines do not know the difference.

17. Describe the political climate in the Philippines.A uniform system of personal taxation applicable to Spaniards and Filipinos alike

had been substituted for the traditional tribute with its racial and class distinctions, and forced labor reduced from forty to fifteen days a year with the privilege of exemption for the higher tax-payers, again without racial distinction, so that, to the scandal and outrage of the racists, a Spaniard might be compelled by the state to wield pick and shovel if he did not pay a sufficiently high rate of personal tax, while a Filipino with enough money to afford it could buy the services of a substitute. In 1885 justices of the peace were appointed to take over the administration of municipal justice from the mayors, and in the following year an identical separation of powers was en- forced between provincial governors and judges of first instance. In 1887 the Spanish Penal Code was extended to the Philippines; in 1889, the Spanish Code of Commerce, the law on administrative litigation and, which drove the absolutists to fury, the Civil Code of Spain except for the provisions on a civil registry and civil marriage, the first of which was deemed impracticable in the Philippines because of the shortage of qualified personnel and suitable facilities, and the second because of the stern opposition of the Church."

18. Discuss the trouble of the hacienda in Kalamba.Hacienda in Kalamba, had not been going well due to the fact that the price of

the sugar had gone down. Until such time that the hacienda lost Php 3000 on their capital and a debt of Php 4000 more because of new machinery.