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A review by misspalah
Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) by José Rizal
3.0
“Because you can be happy elsewhere, because you are not made for suffering, because you would hate your country if some day you were to find yourself outcast for her sake, and to hate one's own country is the greatest of misfortunes.”
― José Rizal, Noli Me Tángere (Touch Me Not)
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I don’t think i will be able to review this book because honestly i struggled to finish the book. I didn’t know whether it’s the translation, abundance of characters or the over detailings in plot, i just can’t seem to place the major issue of the book. However, i learned a lot from the book despite these issues. That itself is already a reward of persevering the book and not DNF it. Aside from knowing that this literary work depicted Spanish colonisation in the Philippines, i got to know about the term ‘Indio’ which meant ‘foolish, not smart or poor’. Back then, The Spaniards used this degrading term to refer to Filipinos. The novel has a lot of symbolism and considering that this is a translated literature, one MIGHT miss it especially if you are not filipino or natives to the language which is Tagalog BUT if your country suffered the same fate like The Philippines - being colonised and were forced to bow to this foreign invader, you can easily comprehend on what Jose Rizal trying to accomplish in his writing. He saw that revolution is the only way to overthrow the Spaniards. I may have trouble keeping up with characters in the book but i believe each character either Ibarra, Sisa and even Elias play a significant role in fighting for the country’s freedom. I have a hard time believing the love between Ibarra and Maria Clara and it pains me to say that i dislike female characters in the book as they can either be way too emotional or over-religious or a little bit of both. I think majority of the readers are aware that major themes of this novel is corruption, abuse of power, patriotism and self sacrifice. Written from the perspectives of the colonised, i can’t help but to feel frustrated, angry and insulted on the audacity of those Friars and Spaniards. Overall, this might be the shortest review i wrote as i believe this book required re-read and perhaps, an in-depth discussion and analysis with any readers from the Philippines who have read the book. Perhaps, their POVs might connect the dots on what i felt is missing from the book. Undeniably, this is an important work especially for post colonial literature. I don’t have to recommend it. You know that you have to read it given the subject matter.
― José Rizal, Noli Me Tángere (Touch Me Not)
.
.
I don’t think i will be able to review this book because honestly i struggled to finish the book. I didn’t know whether it’s the translation, abundance of characters or the over detailings in plot, i just can’t seem to place the major issue of the book. However, i learned a lot from the book despite these issues. That itself is already a reward of persevering the book and not DNF it. Aside from knowing that this literary work depicted Spanish colonisation in the Philippines, i got to know about the term ‘Indio’ which meant ‘foolish, not smart or poor’. Back then, The Spaniards used this degrading term to refer to Filipinos. The novel has a lot of symbolism and considering that this is a translated literature, one MIGHT miss it especially if you are not filipino or natives to the language which is Tagalog BUT if your country suffered the same fate like The Philippines - being colonised and were forced to bow to this foreign invader, you can easily comprehend on what Jose Rizal trying to accomplish in his writing. He saw that revolution is the only way to overthrow the Spaniards. I may have trouble keeping up with characters in the book but i believe each character either Ibarra, Sisa and even Elias play a significant role in fighting for the country’s freedom. I have a hard time believing the love between Ibarra and Maria Clara and it pains me to say that i dislike female characters in the book as they can either be way too emotional or over-religious or a little bit of both. I think majority of the readers are aware that major themes of this novel is corruption, abuse of power, patriotism and self sacrifice. Written from the perspectives of the colonised, i can’t help but to feel frustrated, angry and insulted on the audacity of those Friars and Spaniards. Overall, this might be the shortest review i wrote as i believe this book required re-read and perhaps, an in-depth discussion and analysis with any readers from the Philippines who have read the book. Perhaps, their POVs might connect the dots on what i felt is missing from the book. Undeniably, this is an important work especially for post colonial literature. I don’t have to recommend it. You know that you have to read it given the subject matter.