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24. Dreams
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in El Filibusterismo, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism and Identity
Violence vs. Nonviolence
Education and Freedom
Hypocrisy and Colonial Oppression
Summary
Analysis
The students gather at a Chinese restaurant for a “celebratory” banquet, dedicating each dish or course to Don Custodio or the friars with highly ironic, mocking toasts. Everyone except Basilio is present. They continue to speechify, unsubtly criticizing the government and the religious authorities, despite the near-certainty that they are being spied on.
The students, feeling angry and defeated, still refuse—or fail to consider—to turn to violence, instead risking their own safety and reputation by publicly mocking the priests and government at their banquet. In doing so they deliberately push the limits of what they are allowed to say publicly.
Themes
