In what ways did Noli Me Tangere contribute to the formation of Filipino national

consciousness?

Noli Me Tangere gave us power, it was the seed that gave us the idea to halt being
ignorant and it awakened our needs for independence and freedom. Rizal’s writings
were made to fuel the growing nationalism that will help Filipinos break free from the
shackles of abuse.
Rizal started the composition of Noli Me Tangere in Spain and he was so passionate to
write the novel reflected the sufferings of his countrymen under Spanish feudal
despotism and their rebellion. Noli Me Tangere is a novel wrote by Jose Rizal’s who
was inspired and influenced by the novel he was read titled “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by
Harriet Beecher Stowe, which describes black slavery abuse done by white men. Jose
Rizal's inspiration took him to write his novel with the same topic to expose Spanish
colonial abuse in print. One of the reasons, why he made this book was because of his
mother that has been a victim of a gross injustice system at the hands of a vindictive
Spanish official of the Guardia civil. At this moment, Rizal planned not to write the novel
himself, but through collective efforts done by other Filipinos who shared ideas with him.
In 1884, Rizal and his friends including the Paterno brothers, Graciano López-Jaena,
Evaristo Aguirre, Eduardo de Lete, Melecio Figueroa, Valentín Ventura, and Julio
Llorente decided to agree on the idea of unified novel writings. But when the writing
began, most of them wanted to change the topic from Spanish abuse to somehow relate
to women that’s why Rizal’s decided to write the novel himself.
The primary intention of his book Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo is to express a
letter to a friend and this specifically refers to the first book: “I have endeavored to
answer the calumnies which for centuries had been heaped on us and our country; I
have described the social condition, the life, our beliefs, our hopes, our desires, our
grievances, our griefs; I have unmasked hypocrisy which, under the guise of religion,
came to impoverish and to brutalize us.”
Noli Me Tangere is important to the Filipinos because it was written by Rizal who was
known as a brave martyr and inspiration hero for all youths and besides his book was
the catalyst to start the impending power of the Filipinos to want freedom and
independence. The works of Jose Rizal became an instrument that unified the Filipino
national identity and consciousness that made a lot of noise in history that’s why In
1956, Congress passed Republic Act 1425, or more popularly known as the Rizal Law,
which requires all levels in Philippine schools to teach the novel as part of their
curriculum. Noli Me Tangere is being taught to third-year secondary school students,
while its sequel El Filibusterismo is being taught to fourth-year secondary school
students.
The book, Noli Me Tangere is a fictional-historical novel. it was fictional because the
main characters are only made up but the situation, sufferings, and experiences of
these characters were not false during the Spanish colonization that also includes and
contains historical and sentimental elements that greatly affected the nation that opened
our minds and eyes to the true villains of our country.

References:
M. (2017, February 24). A Content Analysis of Noli Me Tangere, focusing on Filipino
Nationalism/ Corruption: “The Philippines Journey to Metamorphosis.” MINDANAO
FILMS & OUR PRIDE. https://mindanaofilmsmil.wordpress.com/2017/02/24/the-
philippines-journey-to-metamorphosis/#:%7E:text=Noli%20Me%20Tangere%20gave
%20us,from%20the%20shackles%20of%20abuse.