Work record

The Social Cancer (Noli Me Tangere)

Name: The Social Cancer (Noli Me Tangere)
Author: José Rizal

José Rizal

Also known as: Noli Me Tangere · Touch Me Not

1887 · 19th Century · Novel · Spanish

Public domainRead full text Download EPUB Five-minute digest

Abstract

Written: 1884-1887
Setting: 1880s; Manila and the town of San Diego, Philippines
Author: José Rizal (trans. Charles E. Derbyshire)
Country: Philippines
Language: Spanish
Genre: Filipino political novel
Form: Novel in sixty-three chapters with epilogue
Recommended: Grades 10–12 (Colonial abuse, violence and clerical corruption; grades 10-12.)

Homecoming. A young heir from Luzon returns from years of European study to find that his late father perished in jail after defying a powerful cleric.

Hopes. Swallowing vengeance, he plans a schoolhouse for the town children and finds a secret protector in a hunted boatman who rescues him from a staged accident.

Enemies. Insulted at a feast, the heir strikes the old priest and is cast out of the Church; a younger cleric who covets his sweetheart fabricates a revolt in his name.

Flight. Betrayed by a letter surrendered under pressure, he is jailed; the boatman spirits him away across the lake but is shot and dies at dawn on Christmas in the woods.

Ruin. A poor mother maddened by the loss of her boys perishes the same night, and the heir's beloved, told he is dead and shaken by a secret about her parentage, takes the veil.

Reading. Rizal's novel, which helped awaken Filipino national feeling, offers students a vivid study of colonial rule and the costs of courage. Teachers can pair it with the history of Philippine independence and ask how fiction can change a nation.

Main characters

Crisostomo Ibarra: A young reformer returned from Europe.
Maria Clara: Ibarra's gentle fiancée.
Elias: A fugitive who saves Ibarra and dreams of justice.
Padre Damaso: An arrogant Franciscan priest.
Padre Salvi: A scheming friar who desires Maria Clara.
Sisa: A poor woman driven mad by grief.
Capitan Tiago: Maria Clara's wealthy, fawning guardian.

Summary

Noli Me Tangere, Latin for Touch Me Not, was published in Berlin in 1887 by the young Filipino physician José Rizal. Written in Spanish, it exposed the abuses of Spanish colonial rule and of the friars who held great power in the Philippines, and it helped inspire the Philippine Revolution. This text is Charles E. Derbyshire's 1912 English translation, titled The Social Cancer. Crisostomo Ibarra, a wealthy young Filipino, returns home after seven years of study in Europe. At a dinner given by Capitan Tiago, father of his fiancée, Maria Clara, he is insulted by the Franciscan friar Padre Damaso. He then learns that his own father, Don Rafael, a just man, died in prison after a quarrel with Damaso, and that his body was dug up and thrown away on the friar's orders. Ibarra resolves not to seek revenge but to serve his country by building a school in his town of San Diego. He finds a mysterious ally in Elias, a boatman and fugitive, who saves his life when an accident at the school's cornerstone ceremony is arranged to kill him. At a dinner Damaso again insults Ibarra's father, and Ibarra attacks him and is excommunicated, though the Captain-General helps him. The scheming curate Padre Salvi, who desires Maria Clara, arranges a false uprising and makes it appear that Ibarra led it. Ibarra is arrested, and a letter of his given up by Maria Clara is used against him. Elias helps him escape across the lake; they are pursued, and Elias, wounded, dies on Christmas Eve at the Ibarra family's forest tomb. Alongside the main plot runs the story of Sisa, a poor mother whose son Crispin vanishes after being accused of theft by the sacristan and who loses her reason; she dies on the same night, found by her other son, Basilio. Maria Clara, learning that Damaso is her real father and believing Ibarra dead, enters a convent. The novel is a passionate portrait of a colonial society and its wounds.

Virtues in this work

Fortitude: Elias sacrifices his life to save Ibarra and dies hoping for his country.
Justice: Ibarra seeks to serve his people through education rather than revenge.

Plot or Argument

Return
Ibarra comes home from Europe and learns how his father died.
The school
He plans a school, opposed by friars and saved by Elias.
Conspiracy
Padre Salvi frames Ibarra in a false uprising.
Christmas Eve
Elias and Sisa die, and Maria Clara enters a convent.

Characters

Crisostomo Ibarra, protagonist
A young reformer returned from Europe.
Maria Clara, heroine
Ibarra's gentle fiancée.
Elias, boatman
A fugitive who saves Ibarra and dreams of justice.
Padre Damaso, friar
An arrogant Franciscan priest.
Padre Salvi, curate
A scheming friar who desires Maria Clara.
Sisa, mother
A poor woman driven mad by grief.
Capitan Tiago, rich man
Maria Clara's wealthy, fawning guardian.

Lessons

Reform or revolution
Ibarra hopes for peaceful reform, while Elias sees deeper injustice.
- How do Ibarra and Elias differ?
- Why does Ibarra's school fail?
- What does Rizal seem to hope for?
Related across the library
- First Inaugural Address, Lesson: Leadership that is not empire
  Leadership that is not empire. Eisenhower distinguishes "world leadership and imperialism," "firmness and truculence," and planned goals from "spasmodic reaction" to emergencies, and promises never to press American institutions on another people. Power gained in war must be bound by stated rules if allies are to trust it.
- First Inaugural Address ("The only thing we have to fear"), Lesson: Naming the real enemy
  Naming the real enemy. Roosevelt's most famous sentence identifies fear itself as the danger: a panic that stops people from spending, lending, and working and so deepens the very collapse it dreads. A leader's first task in a crisis, the speech suggests, is to tell the truth about conditions while refusing to let terror govern the response.
- Inaugural Address (Harry S. Truman), Lesson: A creed stated in public
  A creed stated in public. Before any policy, Truman declares what the American people believe. He grounds equality in creation in God's image, not in a court ruling or a party platform. Students should notice that the speech sets this creed up as the standard by which communism is judged. They should also ask what it means for a President to state a theological premise as a national conviction, and what such a statement commits the nation to at home in 1949.
- Legends of Charlemagne, Lesson: Old stories reused by new poets
  Old stories reused by new poets. Bulfinch points out that the Siren of Ulysses becomes the Siren of Orlando and that Circe returns as Alcina, and he tells how Pulci, Boiardo and Ariosto reshaped old French and Latin tales. Reading these romances teaches how literature is built from earlier literature, and why a reader of Spenser, Shakespeare or Milton needs to know them.
- Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Summary
  Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel is a picture book about a man and the red steam shovel he names Mary Anne. Mike is proud of her and likes to say that she can dig in one day what a hundred men could dig in a week. Together they dig canals for big boats, cut through mountains so trains can pass, lower hills and straighten curves for highways, and scoop out deep cellars for city skyscrapers. Then new gasoline, electric and diesel shovels arrive and take all the work, and old steam shovels are sold for junk. Mike...
Abuse of power
The friars and officials use religion and law to dominate the people.
- How does Damaso treat others?
- What happens to Sisa's family?
- What is the social cancer?
Related across the library
- Helvering v. Davis, Lesson: Power, not wisdom
  Power, not wisdom. Cardozo stressed that the Court's task was to decide whether Congress had power, not whether the plan was wise. The distinction recurs throughout constitutional law and asks students to separate their judgment of a policy from their judgment of its legality.
- Common Sense, Rights of Man, The Age of Reason, and The American Crisis, Lesson: Inherited power needs justification
  Inherited power needs justification. Paine refuses to treat monarchy, aristocracy, or priestly authority as self-evident. Institutions must answer reason and public good.
- Caesar and Christ, Lesson: When a republic outgrows its constitution
  When a republic outgrows its constitution. Durant presents the fall of the Republic as institutional failure: magistracies designed for a city could not govern a Mediterranean empire, and wealth, slavery and soldiers loyal to generals hollowed out the old virtues. Students can trace how each strongman exploited what the previous one had broken.
- Parzival: A Knightly Epic, Lesson: Growing up
  Growing up. The poem follows a foolish boy to wise maturity.
- The Spirit of the Laws, Book XI, ch. 4
  To prevent this abuse, it is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power. Montesquieu's remedy for the abuse of power: institutional balance rather than reliance on good rulers.
Love and sacrifice
Maria Clara and Elias suffer for others' sins.
- Why does Maria Clara give up the letter?
- Why does Elias sacrifice himself?
- Is anyone redeemed?
Related across the library
- A Tale of Two Cities, Lesson: Love that restores
  Love that restores. Lucie is the golden thread of Book II: her patience draws her father back from the garret, holds the Soho household together and moves Carton's heart. Dickens presents faithful domestic love as a power stronger than imprisonment and hatred.
- Sermons and Letter from Birmingham Jail, Lesson: Nonviolence is disciplined pressure
  Nonviolence is disciplined pressure. King presents nonviolence as organized courage, not passivity. It creates public tension so injustice can no longer remain hidden.
- For Whom the Bell Tolls, Lesson: Sacrifice
  Sacrifice. Jordan gives his life for his companions.
- The Torrents of Spring, Lesson: First love
  First love. Turgenev describes young love as a sudden revolution in life.
- A Tale of Two Cities, Book II, Chapter 5
  Carton works through the night for Stryver with wet towels on his head and a bowl of punch.

Context

In the 1880s the Philippines was a Spanish colony in which Spanish friars held enormous political and economic power; reformers, including Rizal, sought representation and equal rights.

Composition

Written in Madrid, Paris and Berlin and printed in Berlin in 1887 with money borrowed from a friend.

Reception

Banned by colonial authorities; its sequel El Filibusterismo followed in 1891, and Rizal was executed in 1896.

Colonialism Empire Justice Law Faith / Religion Class / Society Love Desire

Comparisons

Uncle Tom's Cabin
Another novel that stirred a nation against injustice.
Heart of Darkness
A study of colonial power from a European viewpoint.

Quotes

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Summary
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel is a picture book about a man and the red steam shovel he names Mary Anne. Mike is proud of her and likes to say that she can dig in one day what a hundred men could dig in a week. Together they dig canals for big boats, cut through mountains so trains can pass, lower hills and straighten curves for highways, and scoop out deep cellars for city skyscrapers. Then new gasoline, electric and diesel shovels arrive and take all the work, and old steam shovels are sold for junk. Mike...
The Republic, Source
THE REPUBLIC By Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett Note See also The Republic by Plato Jowett eBook Contents INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS THE REPUBLIC PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE BOOK I BOOK II BOOK III BOOK IV BOOK V BOOK VI BOOK VII BOOK VIII BOOK IX BOOK X INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS The Republic of Plato is the longest of his works with the exception of the Laws and is certainly the greatest of them There are nearer approaches to modern metaphysics in the Philebus and in the Sophist the Politicus or Statesman is mor...
Little Dorrit, Book the First, Ch. 1 ('Sun and Shadow')
Thirty years ago, Marseilles lay burning in the sun, one day The opening sentence, which sets the story a generation before its publication and introduces the novel's play of light and shade.
Liberalism, Summary
Liberalism is Ludwig von Mises's short statement of the classical liberal program, published in German as Liberalismus in 1927. Ralph Raico translated it into English in 1962 under the title The Free and Prosperous Commonwealth; later editions restored the title Liberalism, adding the subtitle In the Classical Tradition. Where Mises's earlier Socialism had criticized collectivism at great length, this book sets out positively what liberalism, in the nineteenth-century European sense, stands for. Mises presents l...
The Canterbury Tales, Medical lens
The Tales are a rich source for medieval medicine. The Doctor of Physic knows the causes of every malady, and of what humour engendered, reads astrology and the ancient authorities, profited from the plague and loved gold. In the Knight's Tale Arcite's lovesickness is described as a malady engendered of melancholic humours, and his death follows a chest wound that neither vomiting nor laxatives can purge. In the Nun's Priest's Tale Pertelote diagnoses Chanticleer's nightmare as a surplus of red choler and melanc...

The River War, Medical lens
The River War is a valuable record of tropical military medicine at the end of the nineteenth century. Cholera spreading up the Nile in 1896 kills most of those it strikes, with a footnote breaking down attacks and deaths among British troops, native troops and followers that shows how unequally the burden fell. Malaria, liver abscess, scurvy-like gum and leg ulcers, prickly heat and invaliding rates are noted for the Suakin garrison; the Mahdi himself dies of typhus. At the Atbara and Omdurman Churchill describ...
The Happy Prince and Other Tales, Lesson: True and false friendship
True and false friendship. "The Devoted Friend" contrasts the Miller's fine words with his selfish actions. Students can compare what characters say with what they do.
Life on the Mississippi, Lesson: Knowledge has a price
Knowledge has a price. Once the cub has mastered the language of the water, a glorious sunset becomes a list of warnings about wind, snags, and shoals. Twain says that he gained a valuable trade and lost the river's poetry, and he compares himself with a doctor who can no longer see a beautiful face without reading the signs of disease. Expertise changes how we see.
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Full Text
enjoyment of either passion that if they love they can support being a few hours in company without toying or if they hate without spitting in each other's faces It is possible however that Mr Allworthy saw enough to render him a little uneasy for we are not always to conclude that a wise man is not hurt because he doth not cry out and lament himself like those of a childish or effeminate temper But indeed it is possible he might see some faults in the captain without any uneasiness at all for men of true wisdom...
The Sacred Wood, Full Text
wit and useful knowledge may be sometimes found buried perhaps in grossness of expression but useful to those who know their value and such as when they are expanded to perspicuity and polished to elegance may give lustre to works which have more propriety though less copiousness of sentiment JOHNSON Life of Cowley Contents Introduction ix The Perfect Critic Imperfect Critics Swinburne as Critic A Romantic Aristocrat The Local Flavour A Note on the American Critic The French Intelligence Tradition and the Indivi...

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The dinner at Capitan Tiago's house.
What Ibarra learns about his father.
The accident at the cornerstone ceremony.
Sisa's search for her sons.
Elias's last words in the forest.

Key terms and names

Friar: A member of a religious order, such as the Franciscans or Dominicans.
Colonialism: Rule of one people's land by a foreign power.
Excommunication: Exclusion of a person from the sacraments of the Church.
Ilustrado: An educated Filipino of the late nineteenth century, often a reformer.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension How did Ibarra's father die?
Comprehension Who saves Ibarra at the school ceremony?
Comprehension Who is Maria Clara's real father?
Interpretation Why does Rizal use the title Touch Me Not?
Interpretation What does Sisa's story add to the novel?
Big Question How should a person respond to an unjust system?

Faith Connections

John 20:17 (Scripture)
Touch me not, the words of the risen Christ that give the novel its title.
Matthew 23:4 (Scripture)
They bind heavy burdens on others; Rizal's critique of clerical abuse.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Colonial and clerical abuses are a cancer that must be exposed to be healed, even at great cost.

Rhetorical device: satire. Characters like Capitan Tiago and Doña Victorina mock colonial snobbery.

Debate: Resolved: that the novel calls for reform rather than revolution.

Memory Work

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.
Author's Dedication, To My Fatherland, trans. Charles E. Derbyshire (1912). Elias's dying hope for the dawn of his country.

Writing Prompts

Essay: How does Rizal show the effects of colonial power on ordinary families?

Comparison with Uncle Tom's Cabin: Compare The Social Cancer with Uncle Tom's Cabin as novels of protest.

Creative Prompts

Essay
Is Ibarra or Elias the true hero of the novel?
Fiction
Write Basilio's memory of Christmas Eve years later.
Classroom
Debate whether peaceful reform could have worked in Rizal's Philippines.