Noli Me Tangere Chapter 20 Character and Themes Accuracy
“can you verify this "### **Chapter 20: The Arbiter** ## Characters * **Don Custodio de Salazar y Sanchez de Monteredondo** – The government official assigned to decide whether the students' proposal to establish a Spanish Language Academy should be approved. He is portrayed as indecisive and concerned with pleasing influential people. * **Señor Pasta** – A lawyer whom Don Custodio consults for advice regarding the students' proposal. * **Pepay** – A dancer and acquaintance of Don Custodio. Instead of giving useful advice, she asks him for personal favors. * **Padre Irene** – A friar who supports the students' proposal and tries to influence Don Custodio's decision. * **Ben-Zayb** – A journalist who frequently praises Don Custodio and the colonial government. ## Vocabulary * **Arbiter** – A person who has the authority to make a final decision or judgment. * **Proposal** – A plan or suggestion presented for consideration. * **Bureaucracy** – A system of government managed by appointed officials. * **Influence** – The ability to affect another person's decisions or actions. * **Paternalism** – The belief that those in authority should control others for what they claim is their own good. * **Whim** – A sudden or unreasonable change of mind or decision. * **Petition** – A formal written request made to an authority. ## Summary Chapter 20 focuses on **Don Custodio**, the colonial official responsible for deciding whether to approve the students' proposal to establish a **Spanish Language Academy**. He struggles to make a decision because he wants to satisfy the government, the friars, and other powerful individuals. Don Custodio seeks advice from **Señor Pasta**, but the lawyer's vague recommendations only leave him more uncertain. He also consults **Pepay**, who is more interested in asking for personal favors than discussing the proposal. The chapter portrays Don Custodio as a government official with many titles but little real competence. He is known for proposing impractical ideas and avoiding difficult decisions. As pressure from both the friars and the colonial government increases, he becomes even more anxious about issuing his ruling. Through Don Custodio's character, José Rizal criticizes the inefficiency, corruption, and incompetence of the Spanish colonial bureaucracy."”
Summary
The depiction of Don Custodio as the indecisive colonial official who must rule on the students’ proposal for a Spanish Language Academy, his consultations with Señor Pasta and Pepay, and the presence of journalist Ben‑Zayb align with Chapter 20 of *El Filibusterismo*. The friar who supports the proposal is Padre Sibyla, not Padre Irene as stated. Apart from that naming error, the summary correctly reflects the chapter’s characters and themes.
Sources 60 searched
- José Rizal and the Spanish Novel by Aaron C. Castroverde
Rizal comparing the Noli to Don Quijote. With regards to the narrator, Cervantes’ influence can most visibly be seen at the end of the chapter
- José Rizal and Benito Pérez Galdós: Writing Spanish Identity ...
The repository is a service of the Georgia College library. Research and scholarly output included here has been selected and deposited by the individual university departments and centers on campus · For more information, see the Knowledge Box guide
- El filibusterismo - Wikipedia
Don Custodio – Custodio de Salazar y Sánchez de Monteredondo, a famous "contractor" who was tasked by the Captain-General to develop the students association's proposal for an academy for the teaching of Spanish, but was then also under pressure from the priests to protect their prerogatives ...
- José Rizal - Wikipedia
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (Spanish: [xoˈse riˈsal, -ˈθal] ... ; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer, and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is popularly considered a national hero of the ...
- El Filibusterismo - XX: The Arbiter
Don Custodio, the active Don Custodio, the most active of all the arbiters in the world, according to Ben-Zayb, was occupied with it, spending his days reading the petition and falling asleep without reaching any decision, waking on the following day to repeat the same performance, dropping off to sleep again, and so on continuously.
- Chapter 20: The Arbiter (The Summary of “El Filibusterismo”) | Philippines: KapitBisig.com
Don Custodio studies his decision regarding the proposal of the university students. He is undecided, since he wants to please the friars who are against the proposal while at the same time desires to give the students a chance to study the Spanish language. Señor Pasta and Pepay the dancer ...
- Chapter 20: The Arbiter (English version of “El Filibusterismo”) | Philippines: KapitBisig.com
Two days after the events in the Quiapo fair, Don Custodio was as usual busily studying the petition, without hitting upon the happy solution. While he yawns, coughs, smokes, and thinks about Pepay’s legs and her pirouettes, let us give some account of this exalted personage, in order to understand Padre Sibyla’s reason for proposing him as the arbiter of such a vexatious matter and why the other clique accepted him.
thelifeandworksofrizal.blogspot.com- El Filibusterismo: Summary and Analysis of Chapter 20 (The Arbiter)
The first paragraph of this chapter, which states that the problem regarding the school is about to come to an end because it is being addressed by Don Custodio is a direct opposite of the truth about what is really going on.
- Chapter 20: The Arbiter
Nor are these etceteras to be taken like those ordinarily placed after a long enumeration of titles: Don Custodio, although never having seen a treatise on hygiene, came to be vice-chairman of the Board of Health, for the truth was that of the eight who composed this board only one had to be ...
This fact check is free and donation-based. $1 powers ~30 fact-checks.
