Noli Me Tangere

Touch Me Not
Huwag Mo Akong
Salangin

THE SOCIAL CANCER

Table of Contents

Inspiration for the Noli

A Supposed Collaborative Novel
The Writing of Noli
Financial Woes in Berlin
Maximo Viola
The Printing of the Noli
The title Noli Me Tangere
Rizals Dedication
The Lost Chapter: Elias and Salome
Reception of the Novel

Inspiration for the Noli

Rizal was inspired by Harriet Beecher

Stowes novel, Uncle Toms Cabin.
In the novel, it depicts the conditions of
the slave in the Deep South of the
United States.
This novel was also the reason why the
American Civil War occurred in the
1860s due to its anti-slavery theme.

Uncle Toms Cabin

Book Cover

Simon Legree,
a slave owner
and
slave
trader, brutally
beating Uncle
Tom.

A
Supposed
Collaborative Novel

Rizal wanted his novel, which is about the

Philippines, to be a collaborative novel among
Filipinos in Madrid.
Despite the Filipinos promise to collaborate on his
novel, most of them did not write a single chapter.
Also, Rizal was disgusted that most proposals are
about women.
He was also upset that these collaborators spent
their time drinking, gambling, and flirting women
instead of helping him.

The Writing of Noli

Rizal wrote half of the novel in Madrid

during his student days at the
Universidad Central de Madrid.
In 1885, he continue to write the rest in
Paris while having his vacation.
He finished his novel in Wilhelmsfeld in
1886.

Financial Woes in
Berlin

Because of the delay of his allowance, Rizal

was financially broke in Berlin.
Most of his remaining money were simply for
food and the little saving are for stamps and
telegrams.
He refused to tell his worries to his landlady
out of respect and dignity. He walks everyday
to give impression hes taking meals.
In reality, he only eat one meal a day, mostly
on bread and water, cafe au lait, and
vegetable soup for breakfast.

Because of his diet, his health broke

down and started to cough incessantly
fearing he might have tuberculosis.
As Rizal sent his desperate request for
money among his friends in Europe,
Rizal experienced the coldest winter of
his life.
Out of despair and hopelessness, Rizal
was almost at the brink of throwing the
finished novel in to the fire.

I did not believe that the

Noli Me Tangere would ever
be published when I was in
Berlin,
broken-hearted,
weakened,
and
discouraged from hunger
and deprivation. I was on
the point of throwing my
work into the fire as a thing
accursed and fit only to
die.
Rizals letter to Ferdinand
Canon

Maximo Viola

From a rich family in San

Miguel, Bulacan.
Fortunately, he was on his
way to Berlin in December
1886.
Upon seeing Rizals condition,
Viola lend Rizal the funds he
need for the printing of his
novel without hesitation.
With Viola, Rizal spent a
happy Christmas dining on a
festive meal.

The Printing of the Noli

At first, Rizal refused Violas offer due to

delicadeza. Also, Luna promised Rizal to
send money as he sold his Spoliarium
for 20,000 pesetas.
Later on, he accepted Violas offer and
to save printing cost, he edit his work,
removing some paragraphs and even
an entire chapter.

Feb. 21, 1887

The Noli Me Tangere was finally finished and ready
for printing.
He
chose
Berliner
Buchdruckrei-ActionGesselschaft as it has the lowest rate of printing.
With 300 pesos, he was able to print 2,000 copies.

March 21, 1887

The Noli Me Tangere was finally off the press.
He immediately send complimentary copies
Blumentritt and to his friends in Europe.

to

March 29, 1887

Rizal gave Viola the galley proofs the original
manuscript, along with a pen and a complimentary
copy as a token of appreciation and gratitude.

The title Noli Me

Tangere

Rizal got the title from, according to

him, from the Gospel of Luke. In reality,
it is from the Gospel of John.
In a scene where Jesus showed himself,
alive and risen, to Mary Magdalene he
asked her not to touch him since he is
not yet ascended in to heaven.

As she said this she turned round and

sawJesusstanding there, though she did not
realize that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her,
'Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you
looking for?' Supposing him to be the
gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have taken him
away, tell me where you have put him, and
Iwillgo and remove him. Jesus said, 'Mary!'
She turned round then and said to him in
Hebrew, 'Rabbuni!' -- which means Master.
Jesus said to her, 'Do not touch me,
because I have not yet ascended to the
Father. But go to the brothers, and tell them:
I am ascending to my Father and your Father,
to myGod and your God.'

In Spain, the sign noli me tangere

means that the person is suffering from
an incurable disease including cancer.
The term is also applied in pathology to
a malignant cancer which affects every
bone and tissue in the body, and that
this latter was in Rizals mind would
appear from the dedication and from
the summing-up of the Philippine
situation.

Youre right, Elias, but man is a creature of

circumstances! Then I was blind, annoyed
what did I know? Now misfortune has torn the
bandage from my eyes; the solitude and
misery of my prison have taught me; now I
see the horrible cancer which feeds upon
this society, which clutches its flesh, and
which demands a violent rooting out.
Juan Crisostomo Ibarra
Chapter LXI
The Chase on the Lake
Noli Me Tangere

Rizals Dedication
To My Fatherland:

Recorded in the history of human sufferings is a cancer of so malignant

a character that the least touch irritates it and awakens in it the
sharpest pains. Thus, how many times, when in the midst of modern
civilizations I have wished to call thee before me, now to accompany
me in memories, now to compare thee with other countries, hath thy
dear image presented itself showing a social cancer like to that other!
Desiring thy welfare, which is our own, and seeking the best treatment,
I will do with thee what the ancients did with their sick, exposing them
on the steps of the temple so that every one who came to invoke the
Divinity might offer them a remedy.
And to this end, I will strive to reproduce thy condition faithfully,
without discriminations; I will raise a part of the veil that covers the
evil, sacrificing to truth everything, even vanity itself, since, as thy son,
I am conscious that I also suffer from thy defects and weaknesses.
THE AUTHOR

The Lost Chapter: Elias and

Salome

Also know as Chapter X, this chapter was edited out

of the final print of the Noli Me Tangere.
This was edited out due to budget constraint by Rizal.
Should it made the final print, it will be after Chapter
XXIV: In the Woods.
In this chapter, Elias visits his sweetheart, Salome, who
has decided to go away to live with relatives in Mindoro.
In the course of their conversation, Elias reveals that his
family has suffered great injustice and shame that he
does not want to inflict on her.
Furthermore, though she hoped he would go with her,
he felt obliged to remain so that he could repay his debt
to Ibarra.

Reception of the Novel

Most of his friends praised the novel while

enemies condemned it.
Viola was extremely positive on Rizals novel
while Blumentritt commented that his novel was
writen in blood of the heart, and so the heart
also speaks.
Antonio Ma. Regidor, a Filipino exile in London
and a laywer, praised Rizal and never ceased to
read the novel.
While most of the propagandists in Spain have
some dissention, they all praised the novel as
excellent.