Reflection Of Rizal

Most Filipinos when they hear the name Jose Rizal would imagine a short, frail idealistic doctor who loves peace and is greatly appalled by violence and bloodshed. Because of this, he is often juxtaposed with the Supremo Andres Bonifacio who, at least according to most people, contrasts Rizal in many ways. Although Jose Rizal indeed during his lifetime pushed for a peaceful reformation to change the way the Philippines was, a close reading into his life reveals that he was not really the peace-loving guy that many people think he is. In fact, it is perhaps not fitting to venerate him as a peace-loving man at all.
Jose Rizal was born as a frail kid. Adding this to this to his unproportionally big head made him not as appealing as the other guys. Because of this, during his growing up years,

With all that has been said, easily we can say that martial arts was an important part of his life. However, it is very much surprising that despite being involved in a lot of fights in his lifetime, he pushed for a bloodless reformation instead of a violent revolution. Indeed, he had control over himself and his temper and obviously fighting is in his blood, so it begs the question, “Is the path of reformation really what Rizal wanted to traverse?” And on the same note, there’s also the question of why he dedicated more than half of his life mastering martial arts. It is difficult to answer such questions with accuracy but I speculate that Jose Rizal, even during in his younger years, would have easily opted for revolution but he chose not to simply because of his deep love and respect for his parents —particularly his mother. However, due to this, a part of him was repressed and it was only through engaging in stick fighting, fencing, weightlifting, and shooting was he able to channel his feelings of