It is important for all Filipinos to know our National Hero, Dr Jose Rizal. It is sad that most students these days don't know anything about the Philippine heroes which include not only Dr Jose Rizal, but also Andres Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, Gregorio del Pilar, Diego and Gabriela Silang, Marcelo H. Del Pilar, Antonio Luna and Juan Luna.
It is important for us to know who planted in the minds of Filipino people through his writings the idea of seeking independence from the colonial masters. The foremost of these writings are the two novels "Noli Me Tangere" (Touch Me Not, also known as The Social Cancer) and "El Filibusterismo" (Reign of Greed) that instigated the revolution . The unrest was further aggravated by the death of the hero by musketry at the Rizal Park.
It is noteworthy to study these two books well, as due perhaps to his nearing martyrdom without seeing the freedom of his Motherland, the conflict in Rizal's mind was manifested on the creation of another character in the person of Simoun, who contrary to the chracter shown by Ibarra, the pacifist in Noli turns up in El Fili as the rich guy pretending to side with the rich but is in fact siding and urging the Filipinos to revolt.
The teaching of these two novels were not really encouraged by ???? educators / school owners (mostly catholic schools) even up to the present as they want Filipinos to follow the example of pacifist Rizal, not the rebellious Simoun, not the Bonifacio, not the del Pilar. They want Filipinos to remain submissive, malleable and acquiescent.
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