Honesty was a hallmark of Rizal's life. Honesty was shown, for example, in his relationship with the flagship propaganda organ La Solidaridad. His moral compass led him to insist that the "propaganda" be as factual and free of bias as was possible. He encouraged the writers to stop using pen names but their own so that people could judge their writings with a real and not imagined author. After he left the newspaper he became incensed with an article by Lete which Rizal interpreted to be about him.
The article attacked those whose words and life did not match, they did not "walk the talk" as we might say today. Rizal wrote letter after letter of indignation regarding what he believed to be an attack on his integrity. My own belief was that his decision to leave exile and go back to the Philippines and attempt to found the La Liga was due to his reaction to this article. His "arguments" (if they can be called that) with the practices and belief structures of the Catholicism of his day had as much to do with an attempt to be honest in his beliefs as anything else. His scientific studies were marked by the attempt to be as objective and honest in his findings as he could muster.
Dr. Frank C. Laubach, in his biography of Rizal, Rizal: Man and Martyr, says in his last chapter (chapter 18):
"The greatest tribute to his honesty was paid by his enemies. They received him with their `trap,' and then permitted him, though a prisoner, to wander alone during four years along the coast of Mindanao. Sometimes officials even hinted that he might escape if he wished. But he had promised not to violate his parole, and José Rizal in all his life never broke a promise! No man on earth could persuade him to do what he considered dishonorable. `Not even the least connivance at a rescue would taint his word, not even by allowing other men to entertain the thought that his faith could be tainted, and not even in dealing with a government that had dealt perfidiously with him.'"
Dr. Frank C. Laubach, in his biography of Rizal, Rizal: Man and Martyr, says in his last chapter (chapter 18):
"The greatest tribute to his honesty was paid by his enemies. They received him with their `trap,' and then permitted him, though a prisoner, to wander alone during four years along the coast of Mindanao. Sometimes officials even hinted that he might escape if he wished. But he had promised not to violate his parole, and José Rizal in all his life never broke a promise! No man on earth could persuade him to do what he considered dishonorable. `Not even the least connivance at a rescue would taint his word, not even by allowing other men to entertain the thought that his faith could be tainted, and not even in dealing with a government that had dealt perfidiously with him.'"
Source: http://joserizal.info/Biography/man_and_martyr/chapter18. htm
As he wrote the two novels he was attempting to unmask the cancer that prevailed in his beloved homeland. The novel attacks not only the friar control over the land and the vices that came with it but some rather brutally honest depictions of the lives of average Filipinos. Examples of this would be the depictions of the excessive nature of the town fiestas, the addiction to cock fighting by most males, the tendency to "copy" the fashions of the colonial Spaniards and the like. The idealism of Elias is contrasted with the crassness of Simoun.
By Dr. Robert L. Yoder
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