The Life and Contributions of Jose Rizal
This essay about Jose Rizal paper will give you a background about his life, some of his contributions and a certain information about his two nationalistic book which are the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.
On June 19, 1861, in the town of Calamba, Laguna, a boy named Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado Y Alonzo Realonda was born. He came from a wealthy family in Calamba, Laguna and he was the seventh out of eleven children in their family. His well-known parents were Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado Y Alejandro and Teodora Morales Alonzo Y Quintos. Jose Rizal was a Filipino nationalist, novelist, poet, ophthalmologist, journalist, and also a revolutionary. He was widely considered as our Philippine National Hero because of his huge contribution and effort towards ensuring the independence for the country Philippines most importantly for the Filipinos. Furthermore, because of the importance of the life of Jose Rizal the Rizal Law or the Act No. 1425 was said obliged to all public and private schools and it is mandated to include the life of Rizal and his writings also in their curriculum. Jose Rizal was the author of the two nationalistic books; Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.
Noli Me Tangere is a Latin phrase that Jose Rizal took from the Bible, were it means “Touch me not” which is inspired from the verse of John 20:17. This book is written by Jose Rizal during the time of the Spanish occupation in the Philippines. Moreover, the book Noli Me Tangere wrote to make the Filipinos realize the reality that they were being oppressed and to make the Filipinos learn to fight in a right way and in a peaceful manner. The book is made up of sixty-three chapter and an epilogue. The novel is applauded by Ferdinand Blumentritt, a friend of Jose Rizal. Noli Me Tangere is characterized and revolves around Crisostomo Ibarra, who is the main character, a young illustrado who has been studying in Europe for seven years and after his studies, comes home to his town San Diego. Crisostomo Ibarra as a reformist, aims to make education popular and accessible to more people. Some of the characters involving in this novel are Maria Clara who’s Ibarra’s faithful and sweetheart. Padre Damaso, a Franciscan friar. Sisa, the mother of two boys named; Basilio and Crispin. Basilio, the son of sisa, the last person who see Elias alive. That is why the novel is one of the greatest novels in the Philippines because of its tragic and controversial novel. In addition, the novel awakened the Filipinos nationalism and paved the way for the Philippine revolution. El Filibusterismo or The Filibuster, is a sequel of Noli Me Tangere, this novel book is for the three priest, Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora.
El Filibusterismo is characterized or major characters by Simoun, a wealthy jeweler and the fugitive of Ibarra. The novel is more on revenge scenes and it is expressed by the characters. Jose Rizal precisely said that violence is not the preferred solution but change is the key and it is necessary, it should come about in a peaceful and sensibly way.
The two nationalistic novels which Jose Rizal wrote, paved the way for a Filipino uprising against the abusive, discrimination that Spain did and because of his writings the Filipinos opened their eyes to realize and gave them the braveness and strong guts to strive against. The life, works and the writing of Dr. Jose Rizal is a worthy to honor him as our foremost national hero because of his character and life, his talents, and his utmost sacrifice of his life. Definitely, his expertise in writings enable him to convince or persuade his fellow countrymen to attain the justice they wanted.
Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado Y Alonzo Realonda pushed for reforms and freedom using his pen as a sword. One of Jose Rizal’s contribution is when he led the Philippine Independence by fighting for reforms through his writings instead of doing such bloody revolution. The reform movement has become an indirect way to our country’s freedom. Jose Rizal fought passively and proved that “the pen is mightier than the sword”. He was able to use his intelligence to set forth his beliefs, ideas and opinions clearly. Furthermore, he used his pen to write about the corruptions and wrong doings of the Spanish colonial government.
Finally, taking everything in account, Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado Y Alonzo Realonda did everything just for the country and fighting until his last breath. He lived his life as a simple one. As an educated man, he did everything in a right way with his calmness and his ability to think rationally even in the most circumstances that he encountered. Equally important, he recognized for his unselfish contribution for the country despite of all the happenings and discrimination that the Spaniards did. Obviously, the life of our national hero Jose Rizal gave us many lessons and learnings. Indeed, his life and works is a truly inspiring to the Filipinos because of his unconditional love for the country. Not just an ordinary story that Rizal gave to us but a story of showing the ability to easily understand things and deal with a new or difficult situation, and also a talented Filipino, who is ready to sacrifice things out just to make things right, to sacrifice his whole life just to give freedom and peace to his family, and with his own nation. It gives me an important lesson and insights that tells me the value of a certain things which is important for the success of his life. His family is one of his strengths that supporting, trusting and believing him for his success.
