Chapter 1 Advent of a National Hero

This chapter described how gifted our hero is, and how he became the greatest
national hero of our nation and what versatile gifts to him.

First, the chapter introduces the Rizal’s family. Starting his birth, his exact birth
actually which is June 19, 1861; this date is very remarkable because this date is the
birth of a hero. It also introduced the baptism of Dr. Jose Rizal, who is the parents of Dr.
Jose Rizal and how his mother became his first teacher and how many siblings they
are. Dr. Jose Rizal is the 7th child in the eleven (11) siblings.

This chapter also discusses the real surname of Dr. Jose Rizal come from and
how he started his childhood life to his home town which is Calamba Laguna.

Chapter 2 Childhood Years in Calamba

The chapter discusses how beauty memories Dr. Jose Rizal had in his childhood
life in his town. Calamba, the place were Rizal started his earliest childhood, his own
home that he used to study for the first time were his teacher is his own mother. Dr.
Rizal raised by his parents to be a good, kind hearted and God fearing man. By the
result of the way his parents raised him up, he became an intelligent and talented man.
As an example he already knows how to read and write in just an early age, and how to
draw. It discusses how Rizal inherits a lot of things from his ancestors.

And to this chapter also discusses his first sorrow where the death of his younger
sister Concha is and the reason of his mother imprisonment.

Chapter 3 Early Educations in Calamba and Biñan

In this chapter it discuss how Dr. Jose Rizal started to develop his education, that
learning things is not discuss only at home but of course to an institution where we can
develop his knowledge, in the school.

Same as the chapter II that it been told that his mother became his first teacher.
In this chapter it discuss how he started his schooling and it was in Biñan what
experiences he had there as a student and how his learning’s from school mold him to a
better man, not only for his own sake but same as his concern to his country’s freedom.

Chapter 4 Scholastic Triumphs at Ateneo De Manila

The continuation of the previous chapter, to this chapter discusses the

achievements of our hero not just in his early schooling but also in his school days in
high school. Rizal got a lot of achievements even though there’s a lot of problems and
struggles to his study. And that is actually help him to became a strong man in his stay
of his high school days he created a lot of poems and anecdotes that he shared to his
fellow Filipinos, he also had his first love but being in love does not hinders his goals in
life but it actually inspires him to do his plans in life but being in love to someone does
not always leads to happy endings he also experience heartbreak too.

Chapter 5Medical Studies at the University of Santo Tomas

Fortunately, Rizal’s tragic first romance, with its bitter disillusionment did not
adversely affect his studies in the UST. After finishing the first year of a course in
Philosophy and Letters, he transferred to the medical course. As a Thomasian, he won
more literary laurels, had other romances with pretty girls, and fought against Spanish
Students who insulted the brown Filipino students.

Chapter 6In Sunny Spain

After finishing his 4th year of the Medical course in the University of Santo Tomas,
Jose Rizal, being disgusted with the antiquated method of the Instruction in this
Dominican owned University and the racial prejudice of Dominican Professors against
Filipino students, decide to compete his studies in Spain. And that was his Secret
Mission.

Chapter 7 Paris to Berlin

The chapter discusses the travels of Rizal to the different countries to improve
and enhance his specialization in medicine. He also studied to Paris not for self-
satisfaction but to study ophthalmology to cure his mother’s eye ailment. And even he is
studying, he did not stop writing, but he grows more instead.

It also discusses how hard being far to the home you belong for a long period of
time, to leave your family and no one care of you. Rizal experienced how to be poverty
and to be stranger to the country he’s been living on.

Chapter 8NoliMeTangere Published in Berlin

The chapter discusses what he had been experienced to Berlin, the good things
and the bad things that happen to staying there. And by that, he wrote a novel that
inspires his fellow Filipino to fight for their rights. This novel also proves how intelligent
our hero.

Chapter 9Rizal’s Grand Tour of Europe with Viola (1887)

Where Rizal begun his tour in Europe. He companioned with Dr. Maximo Viola.
Upon staying there, he met Blumentritt who was an old Austrian Professor. From
Geneva Rizal went to Italy where he reached Rome “the Eternal City” also called “City
of Caesars”.
 After a week of staying there, Rizal prepared to return to the Philippines
Chapter 10First Homecoming (1887-88)
All the alluring beauties of foreign countries and all the beautiful memories of his
sojourn in alien lands could neither make Rizal forget his fatherland nor turn his back to
his own nationality. He remained at heart a true Filipino with an unquenchable love for
the Philippines and an unshakable determination to die in the land of his birth.

Chapter 11In Hong Kong and Macau

Rizal was forced to leave his country for a second time in February 1888.
February 3, 1888 when Rizal left Manila for Hong Kong boarded on Zafiro. He arrived in
Hong Kong on February 8 where he stayed at Victoria Hotel where Filipino residence.
February 18 boarded the ferry steamer Kiu-Kiang for Macao; she stayed at the home of
Don Juan Francisco. He left Hong Kong on February 22, 1888 and go to Japan.
Chapter 12Romantic Interlude n Japan
One of the happiest interludes in the life of Rizal was his sojourn in the land on
the Cherry Blossoms. For one month and half, he was enchanted by the natural beauty
of Japan, the charming manners of the Japanese people. And the pictures shrines.
Moreover, he fell in love with a Japanese girl, whose loneliness infused joy and
romance in his sorrowing heart. Her real name was Seiko Usui, Rizal affectionately
called her O-Sei-San.

Fate, however, his happy days in Japan had to sacrifice his own happiness to
carry on his work for the redemption of his oppressed people.

Chapter 13Rizal’s Visit to the United States

Rizal arrived to America on April 28, 1888. His arrival in this great country was
marred by racial prejudice, for he saw the discriminatory treatment of the Chinese and
the Negroes by the white Americans. He kept notes of what he observed during his trip
from San Francisco to New York. Rizal was a man of truth and was he wrote what he
had seen and experienced.
Chapter 14Rizal in London (1888-89)
After visiting the United States, Rizal lived in London from May, 1888 to March,
1889. He chose this English city to be his new home for three reasons: to improve his
knowledge of the English language, to study and annotate Morga’sSucesos de las Islas
Filipinas, a rare copy of which he heard to be available in the British Museum, and
London was a safe place for him to carry on his fight against Spanish tyranny. Gertrude
Becket was his romance in London.
Chapter 15Rizal’s Second Sojourn in Paris and the Universal Exposition of 1889
March 1889 was extremely difficult for a visitor to find living quarters in Paris.
Because of the Universal Exposition which was scheduled to open on May 6, 1889
attracted a thousand of tourists so that the entire hotel accommodations were taken, to
the disgust of Rizal, the cost of living spiraled high because of the French landlords,
taking advantage, raised their room rents. Despite the social parties he continued his
fruitful artistic, literary, and patriotic labors. He published his annotated edition of
Morga’sSucesos; founded three Filipino societies, the Kidlat Club, the Indios Bravos,
and the R.D.L.M; and wrote PorTelefono, a satire against Fr. Salvador Font.
Chapter 16In Belgian Brussels (1890)
January 28, 1890, Rizal left Paris for Brussels, capital of Belgium. Two reasons
why Rizal leaves Paris: the cost of living in Paris was very high because of the
exposition and the gay social life of the city hampered his literary works. In Brussels he
receives letter that the Calamba agrarian trouble getting worse. He prepared to go
home but his family and friends warned him that he can’t go home because he may get
in danger so he decided to go Madrid. Petite Susanne was his romance in Brussels.
Chapter 17Misfortunes in Madrid (1890-91)
Rizal tried to seek justice for his family and the Calamba tenants. Disappointment
after disappointment piled on him, until the cross he bore seemed insuperable to carry.

He almost fought two duels- one with Antonio Luna and the other with
Wenceslao E. Retana. On the top of his misfortunes, Leonor Rivera married a British
engineer. The infidelity of the girl, whom he was engaged foreleven years, broke his
heart.

Chapter 18Biarritz Vacation and Romance with Nelly Bousted (1891)

To seek solace for his disappointments in Madrid, Rizal took a vacation in the
resort city of Biarritz on the fabulous French Rivera. He was a guest of the rich
Boustead family at its winter residence – Villa Eliada. He had befriended with Mr.
Eduardo Bousted and his wife and two charming daughters Adelina and Nelli. It was in
Biarritz where he had serious romance with Nellie and finished the last chapter of his
second novel El Filibusterismo.
Chapter 19El Filibusterismo Published in Ghent (1891)
Rizal in Brussels was busy revising and polishing the manuscript of El
Filibusterismo. He had begun writing it in October 1887, while practicing medicine in
Calamba. He wrote more chapters in Paris and Madrid, and finished the manuscript in
Biarritz on March 29, 1891. It took him three years to write his novel.

Noli Me Tangereand El Filibusterismo compared- the Noli is a romantic novel; it

is a “work of the heart” a book of feeling while Fili is a political novel, it is a “work of the
head” a book of the thought and it contains bitterness.

Chapter 20Ophthalmic Surgeon in Hong Kong (1891-92)

After the publication of Fili, Rizal left Europe for Hong Kong where he lived for
almost one year. Because of his unbearable life in Europe caused of his political
differences with M.H. delPilar and other Filipinos in Spain.

Before sailing for Hong Kong, he noticed Del Pilar that he was retiring from the
political arena in Spain in order to preserve unity among the compatriots and that
despite their parting of ways he had the highest regard for him.

Chapter 21Second Homecoming and the Liga Filipina

It marked his re-entry into the hazardous campaign for reforms. He firmly
believed that the fight for Filipino liberties has assumed a new phase; it is, it must be
fought in the Philippines not in Spain. At that point La Solidaridad is no longer their
battle field, it is a newly struggle for them to fight on. And in going home, he lead a new
reform movement, the Liga Filipina.

Chapter 22Exile in Dapitan, 1892-96

Rizal lived in exile in far-away Dapitan, a remote town in Mindanao which was
under the missionary jurisdiction of the Jesuits from 1892-1896. His romance in Dapitan
is Josephine Bracken which cheers his lonely life in Dapitan.
Chapter 23Last Trip Abroad
Rizal missed the regular steamer Isla de Luzon, which sailed to Spain the day
before he arrived in Manila Bay. Rizal left Manila on September 3, 1896 on the steamer
Isla de Panay and it was his last trip abroad.
Chapter 24Last Homecoming
Rizal’s homecoming in 1896, the last in his life, was his saddest return to his
beloved native land. The trial that was held shortly after his homecoming was one of
history’s mockeries of justice. His enemies howled like mad dogs for his blood, and they
got it without benefit of genuine justice.
Chapter 25Martyrdom at Bagumbayan
After the court-martial, Rizal returned to his cell in Fort Santiago to prepare his
rendezvous with destiny. During his last 24 hours on earth – from 6:00 a.m. December
29 to 6:00 a.m. December 30, 1896 – he was busy meeting visitors, including Jesuit
priests, Josephine Bracken and members of his family.
Rizal was blessed by priest and offered him a crucifix for him to kiss, he
requested the commander of the firing squad to shoot him facing the quad but it was
denied by the commander and shoot him in the back. Exactly 7:03 in the morning when
he died, aged 35 years, five months and 11 days.