A DISCUSSION OF PLATO AND ARISTOTLE’S CONCEPT OF

CENSORSHIP AS A GUIDE FOR THE YOUTH IN READING ISIDORE

OKPEWHO’S THE LAST DUTY.

This paper seeks to provide a guide for the youth in reading Isidore Okpewho’s The Last Duty by

the use of Plato and Aristotle’s concept of censorship. Censorship is defined by the Wikipedia

Online Encyclopedia as the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be

considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as

determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body. It can be gleaned from the

definition of censorship that there is the need to remove parts of a work from it when these parts

are considered immoral, offensive, abusive, and eliciting political threat. For the sake of this

paper, the criteria given by Plato and Aristotle for censoring a work of art will be employed as a

guide for the youth.

Censorship – the control of the information and ideas circulated within a society – has been a

hallmark of dictatorships throughout history. In the 20th Century, censorship was achieved

through the examination of books, plays, films, television and radio programs, news reports, and

other forms of communication for the purpose of altering or suppressing ideas found to be

objectionable or offensive. The rationales for censorship have varied, with some censors

targeting material deemed to be indecent or obscene; heretical or blasphemous; or seditious or

treasonous. Thus, ideas have been suppressed under the guise of protecting three basic social

institutions: the family, the church, and the state.1 Despite their ulterior motive for censoring, it

was of much importance to do such to protect the society especially the youth from corruption by

these works and speeches.

1 th
ht t p:/ / gilc.org/ speech/ osist udy/ censorship/ . Accessed on 24 November, 2011.
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Plato was much concerned about morals and ethics. He therefore seeks the appropriateness of a

work of art based on its moral effects and its moral content. He seeks to admonish the poet that

every production of art should establish a moral content and moral effect. In this effect he

suggests that a poet’s work should be censored by a critic. He therefore gives the critic criteria to

follow when censoring a work of art. That is, the work of art should have intention and capacity

to give pleasure, the work should be correct, that is, its verisimilitude and lastly the work’s good

effects and usefulness. He views artists as too self involved, concerned with and ruled by only

their emotions and their imagination, without any real knowledge or truth. He had an idealist

view of how society should be, with reason and rationality being necessities, and to achieve this

believed that art and the influence of its creators were an obstacle to be overcome. Rather than a

personal adversity to the arts, Plato believed that it would truly be for the good of society. He

follows with the thought that rulers of society need to do what is best for the masses, and also

protect their own leadership, and therefore any threat to their position must be eradicated at any

cost. His view in The Republic is that only images of good must be portrayed. “We must speak to

our poets and compel them to impress upon their poems only the image of the good, or not to

make poetry in our city.”

Aristotle on the other hand, deals with a moral value of a work of art which cannot be trespassed

without going unpunished. He thinks that every poet who produces a work of art without a moral

value should not be left to go scot-free. He goes further to indicate the social functions which a

work of art should attain and anything different from these functions should be rejected and

offenders punished hence the need for censors or critic. In Aristotle’s Politics, he has this to say:

The Directors of Education, as they are termed, should be careful what tales or
stories the children hear, for all such things are designed to prepare the way for
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 the business of later life, and should be for the most part imitations of the
occupations which they will hereafter pursue in earnest. Those are wrong who in
their laws attempt to check the loud crying and screaming of children, for these
contribute towards their growth, and, in a manner, exercise their bodies. Straining
the voice has a strengthening effect similar to that produced by the retention of the
breath in violent exertions. The Directors of Education should have an eye to their
bringing up, and in particular should take care that they are left as little as possible
with slaves. For until they are seven years old they must five at home; and
therefore, even at this early age, it is to be expected that they should acquire a
taint of meanness from what they hear and see. Indeed, there is nothing which the
legislator should be more careful to drive away than indecency of speech; for the
light utterance of shameful words leads soon to shameful actions. The young
especially should never be allowed to repeat or hear anything of the sort. A
freeman who is found saying or doing what is forbidden, if he be too young as yet
to have the privilege of reclining at the public tables, should be disgraced and
beaten, and an elder person degraded as his slavish conduct deserves. And since
we do not allow improper language, clearly we should also banish pictures or
speeches from the stage which are indecent . . . But the legislator should not
allow youth to be spectators of iambi or of comedy until they are of an age to sit
at the public tables and to drink strong wine; by that time education will have
armed them against the evil influences of such representations. 2 (bk.7, Chp.17)
In this light does this paper seek to discuss Isidore okpewho’s novel, The Last Duty. Poetry must

teach morality and not corruption. In this novel, there are some horrendous scenes which need to

be censored before its presentation. Some of these scenes are the firing squad, the exchange of

gunshots between the rebels and the military men, conspiracy scenes, and so on. Other aspects of

the novel that do not teach morality is where a married man flirts with a married woman whose

husband has been detained for three years and this married man connives with the people to

keep the woman’s husband in prison in order to get whatever he wants from the woman. The act

of lying and insulting are also numerous in the novel and all these scenes and acts need to be

censored in order to prevent corrupting the youth as Plato and Aristotle propound in their

concept of censorship.

2
Arist otle. Politics. Writ ten 350 B.C.E Translat ed by Benjam in Jow et t.
3
The novel, The Last Duty will be the primary material for this discussion and other secondary

materials related and relevant to the topic will be consulted for enhancing the discussion. This

paper will closely examine the novel with this concept of censorship by Plato and Aristotle. For

it is clear, whether we have thought about this clearly or not, that many of us instinctively agree

with Plato and Aristotle's concept of censorship here in our understanding of and evaluation of

artistic works. When we evaluate something as good or bad, we often have immediate recourse

to a system of judgment which measures the contents of the work against some standard of how

life ought to be, that is, against some moral ideal. We often expect art to live up certain ideal

standards, and we deplore art that does not.

The war scenes in the novel need not be presented to the youth. They are to be censored before

presentation. One may say that the horrors of war are serving as a caution to the youth to deter

them from indulging in such an act. Truly it may be but sight must not be lost on the fact that

these horrors might corrupt the minds of the youth though originally intended as a warning. We

are in a society where individuals are virtually not the same. The scene might have an intension

to educate but will corrupt others too. This is the main reason why a perfect work of art should

be devoid of such scenes to prevent corruption.

Just yesterday, late in the evening, a member of rebel planes had visited this town
on a bombing mission. But we quickly put an end to that mission by shooting
down one of the planes, the others turned back at once and headed back whence
they had come. And now, as I drive round this morning to check if any damage
has been done to any part of the town, I am greeted with deafening applause from
a grateful population. (p.1)
How on earth should such a horror of bombing mission be applauded by ‘a grateful population’?

This is what seeks to corrupt the youth. Since the population does not see anything wrong with

what happened, the youth will in turn copy the act blindly. It is believed that the child learns
4
from the adult, so whatever is done by the adult will definitely be copied by the young in the

society. The word ‘deafening’ as used in the extract above is a hyperbole which has been used in

its propriety. It has been appropriately used to tell us the extent to which the population

applauded the happenings. The exaggerated word shows the intensity to which the populace

welcomed the action that took place. They were moved by the exquisite display of their military

men but not the bloodcurdling content of the display. This therefore gives way to tell the youth

reading this novel that there is nothing wrong with what happened at that scene hence inflicting

corruption on the minds of the youth.

The repercussions of war should be considered in order to deter the youth from indulging in it.

This consideration will then help in the teaching of good morals which Aristotle is much

concerned about.

I begin to wonder how much longer I can go on in this state of affairs – myself
and my child. For about one year now, this town has been subjected to constant
attacks by the Simbian forces, by air and by land. Once in a while an air raid visits
us, and bodies are counted. (p.11)
Should a society therefore meet such a ruinous upshot of war with a ‘deafening applause’?

Absolutely not! Such a devastating effect of war should not be encouraged. At the end of the

display, ‘bodies are counted.’ The counting of these dead bodies is something that should be

emphasized as a means to deter the youth from involving themselves in wars against the

society’s act of appreciation. It is therefore paramount to establish that the earlier bombing scene

presented which was appreciated by the populace should be censored to avoid corruption of the

youth.

5
An act of violence is one which should not be presented to the youth. In the novel The Last Duty,

there are numerous scenes of violence which are not to be presented to the youth. Violence is

defined by the Encarta Dictionary as the use of physical force to injure somebody or damage

something. To physically and forcibly inflict injuries on somebody is something that must not be

encouraged at all! Among such violent scenes are: shooting, bombing and an uncle and a nephew

killing themselves. If violence such as these are not checked and controlled, they tend to corrupt

the youth. A shooting incident like that of a firing squad is a horrible scene that is not expected to

be portrayed for the youth’s consumption.

It is of much regret to say that the setting of this novel is a civil war zone but these devastating

scenes are still met with delightful acceptance. People who also practise these violent actions by

killing do not feel any sense of remorse. A man shoots his wife dead because she committed

adultery. Though this woman commits an unforgiving offence against morality, she is not to be

shot dead, that is, to punish her with death. There could be a much better punishment than

killing. The man kills her and does not see anything wrong with it. This incident is one that does

not teach any moral lessons and thus need to be scrapped out of the presentation of the art work.

The berserk gun fire ripped far and wide, until the private directed a furious knee-
kick at the sergeant’s testicles. The sergeant yelled wildly, and his hold on the
gun-barrel slackened. At once the private manoeuvered the rattling gun towards
the other’s face, and made a ghastly mess of it. The sergeant flung his arms apart
in dying agony, and crashed on the floor. The private quickly uncorked the gun,
and dropped it on the ground. Standing over the victim, he was panting with heat
and excitement. But he was neither sorry nor afraid. He had confronted death too
often, face to face, to be scared by just one more picture of it on this creature.
(p.18)
It can be gleaned from this extract that the personality in description is a hardened criminal due

to his experiences. For a person to feel excited after killing a fellow human being in such an

6
animalistic manner is absolutely unwelcomed! Violence such as this should be a scene which

must not be revealed to the youth. The word ‘ghastly’ as used in the extract discloses to us how

horribly the action was done. This is to an extent a means of indicating that the action done is not

to be encouraged. But for him to pant with ‘heat and excitement’ is an evil which deserves to be

ejected from the novel.

The novel also contains some pornographic scenes which need to be censored to avoid

corruption. It is therefore expedient to remove these scenes from the novel in order to avoid the

corruption of the youth. The Webster’s Dictionary explains pornography as obscene literature,

photographs, paintings, etc intended to cause sexual excitement; the treating of obscene subjects

in art, literature etc.

Longino’s definition of the term pornography, gives a further explication of the term. It states:

Pornography, then, is verbal or pictorial material which represents or describes

sexual behaviour that is degrading or abusive to one or more of the participants in
such a way as to endorse the degradation. Behaviour that is degrading or abusive,
includes physical harm and abuse and physical or psychological coercion. 3
Longino’s definition above reveals that any form of speech or material that helps in abusively

describing a sexual behaviour is pornographic.

He pushed the door open – and there it was. The full naked form of the woman!
Once drawn to the sight, my eyes could not of their own natural will detach
themselves from the wonder that confronted them: a trunk smooth as a pebble,
bristling womanhood and a lot of hair where it should be! She was pulling a dress
over her head, standing near a bed and facing the doorway. As soon as she heard
the door fly open, she quickly turned round and put down her arms, covering
herself with the dress. (p.135/136)

3
Longino H. E. “Pornography, Oppression and Freedom: A Closer Look” in Take Back The
Night: Women in Pornography. Lederer et al, eds. New York: William Morrow. 1980
pp 40 - 54
7
This extract is one that can be classified as pornographic. The description in the speech is a form

of visual imagery. This kind of imagery enables the creation of images in the readers mind thus

tempering with his sexual behaviour. This is a description that seeks to corrupt the intuition of

the youth. Whoever reads this extract begins to think about what is being described. As one

pictures it in his mind, he is left to battle the consequences on his own. It is the main reason why

this scene should be omitted. This position might not be accepted by others but the fact that the

speech attaches one to a different realm of thought that has influence on the sexual behaviour of

a personality, it qualifies to be a pornographic speech.

For example, consider a common response to pornography. Why on earth would anyone object

to it? Well, there are two widespread objections, both recognizably linked to what is presented in

the Republic by Plato. The first is that pornography upsets the emotional equilibrium of the

psyche and can lead to anti-social or self-destructive acts. Obviously, there is much dispute about

the empirical evidence for such a claim. Nevertheless the argument is a common one.

The second objection to pornography is more interesting. It is that pornography corrupts the

understanding. Routine depictions of women as slave objects or sexual toys or mere extensions

of male penis power, it is argued, violate a true understanding of intelligent and mature sexual

relationships, no matter what immediate conduct emerges. When we make criticism like this, it

is striking that we are making a claim something like the one Socrates establishes in the

Republic, that there are certain standards of truth to which art must be held accountable and that

we must move against forms of Poesis which, however popular, corrupt the understanding of

what is truly important.

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Such modern statements about pornography are seeing art, as Socrates suggests, as an imitation

of something. The moral purpose of art, if it is to have such a moral purpose, comes from its

connection to some higher form of an ideal, and we are thus thoroughly justified in criticizing or

perhaps even censoring art which corrupts this ideal. It is not enough to say, as some might, that,

well, the art is a very good depiction of the way things are (e.g., there are a lot of depraved

sexual practices going on and this work is simply copying those). What matters is the extent to

which the art contributes to our understanding of something more, something higher, something

of value.

The novel also presents scenes of conspiracy and they must be removed from it. Conspiracy is

defined by the Encarta Dictionary as the making of a secret plan or agreement to commit an

illegal or subversive act. The act of conspiracy has accounted for the imprisoning of people and

even their death. It is of much importance then to guard against such practice in order to save

people from suffering the consequences of conspiracy. The question to ask is, why should one

purpose to commit an evil against someone? Some people do this to satisfy their ego and others

to bring shame to the victim which might have been sparked by a competition. It is therefore

immoral for a person to secretly plan to commit one’s self to doing evil. Such is displayed in the

novel and they must be removed.

I made a secret report to Major Akuya Bello, went over secretly to tell him what
the whole town knew Oshevire did, merely because I did not want this to be an
open scandal involving my name. But the Major saw with me. He rightly
reckoned that a man of my stature would not stand up to make a frivolous charge
against another citizen. He saw with me and took the report to the authorities at
Iddu, and thereafter Oshevire was bundled off there and thrown into detention.
That was only as it should be. (p.31)

9
This is an act that must not be encouraged when we put Plato and Aristotle’s views on morality

into consideration. One therefore needs to be careful when reading this literary work in order not

to be corrupted by this act of conspiracy. The act of conspiracy which is depicted here is

something that should be prevented from corrupting the youth by removing it from the novel. ‘I

made a secret report . . .’ reveals to readers what the character in question did to cause his fellow

to be arrested. He is seen as one who does this just because of hatred against the other.

Chief Toje in the novel is fond of insulting anyone who infuriates him and even without

infuriation. It is therefore realized from the novel that it is part of his being to insult. He has been

created by the author to function in that manner. This is in fact heartbreaking for an author to

create such a character. It is against the views of Aristotle and Plato on virtue or morality. A

character in a novel is to demonstrate good morals so that the audience specifically the youth will

be able to learn from this exhibition of good morals. One is in danger to be corrupted by such a

character if care is not taken. That is the main reason why Aristotle suggested that a work of art

should be censored to prevent corruption such as this. The act of insulting is very much

addictive. If care is not taken, one easily picks up these kinds of insults.

In the novel, the major form of insult is directed to Odibo by his uncle, Chief Toje. Abusive

words like, “bastard”, “damned”, “animal”, “good for nothing”, “a dumb mass of body” are

rained on Odibo. From the recordings in the novel, it is known that Odibo is handicapped and so

for such insults to be meted on him is disheartening. This might in turn cause anybody reading

the novel will also develop such character against handicaps. And for a handicapped person to

read this novel, it serves as a ground for demeaning his status as a human being. “What use is

this awkward mass of a body, he said, if you cannot help yourself. And you have no mind. No

10
sense. Nothing. All you have is a huge body. And that is no use to anyone. No use at all, not even

to yourself. Utterly useless . . .” (p.60)

Is it really true that handicaps are of ‘no use to anyone’ but made up of only ‘a huge body’? No,

that is really false! Some handicaps perform more than the fellows who see themselves as ‘full

beings’. These forms of insults then are to be removed from the novel to utterly prevent the

corruption of the youth.

Notwithstanding, the novel presents issues of adultery. The act of adultery is demonstrated by

some characters in the novel. Adultery has been defined by the Encarta Dictionary as voluntary

sexual relations between a married and somebody other than his or her spouse. From the

definition, it is clearly shown that a person who involves him or herself in the act of adultery,

voluntarily does so. It can be seen from the novel that Chief Toje does that without remorse. He

sleeps with other women and to be specifically, prostitutes. This act of adultery is not supposed

to be presented at all to be read by the youth.

Another major character who does this act is Aku. She involves herself deeply in this act to save

her family. It is unfortunate that she never gets satisfied by her adulterous man but get many

troubles out of it.

After all, I am a woman, and I don’t think the present situation has robbed me of
my judgment yet. I was prepared to see how much I could take or mildly oppose
without losing my sense of shame or his favour. It was a delicate situation, and up
till that point I was still prepared to let doubt rule my mind. I had to be careful.
What would I lose if I did? And if I let indiscreet valour undo my son and me, the
same world would laugh at me that would judge me an incontinent whore if I let
discretion prevail. And what wouldn’t I lose if I didn’t? (p.68/69)

This can be accepted to be a very delicate issue for a woman like Aku to handle. How could a

woman of Aku’s state and status in the society handle such a delicate issue as this? But gathering
11
from the quotation above, Aku makes the decision to accept the offers of Chief Toje because of

her present state. She involves herself in an adulterous life with this man to save her life in the

town.

Aku also engages in this same act with Odibo who is an errand boy for his uncle Chief Toje.

Odibo fills in the gap left by his uncle. He is called by Aku to finish the unfinished job of his

impotent uncle who is used to using his finger and leaving Aku swelling with passions. It is

recorded in the novel that the first time Odibo slept with Aku, “She sighed deeply, and said

‘Thank You’.” How on earth can a married woman receive adulterous pleasures and without

remorse thank her ‘giver’? This is outrageously uncalled for and need not to be encouraged

hence the reason for the deletion of this presentation from the novel.

Furthermore, the novel has many scenes of lies. These lies are predominately lies to children.

This is what Aristotle is against. He opines that lies are not to be told to children because these

lies become part of them as they grow. He actually cautioned parents on lies which are told

concerning the gods. In this novel, Oghenovo is told lies by his mother and Odibo. This child is

told lies in order to deter him from indulging in some activities. The mother in particular tells

him lies about his father. “For every time a gift like this comes from Toje, I have told him that it

was sent by his father who is away on a journey to Iddu.” (p.13) Aku creates the impression that

Oshevire, Oghenovo’s father, is just on a journey and that he is the one who has been sending

him the things he needs. This is absolutely lies! The child’s conscience is being controlled by

these lies about his father and that any form of truth that comes will never be able to clear these

lies. This is the main reason why Oghenovo refuses to go to his father when for the first time

12
comes into contact with his father. Knowing his father from what his mother told him, he

couldn’t see that true father in the father he comes into contact with at the later part of the novel.

Odibo is one of the characters in the novel who also tells Oghenovo a lie to stop him from going

out. “no, he says, you are not going anywhere. your mother says you should not leave the house.

if you do, that soldier outside there will catch you and throw you into the hole of his gun. and

you will not be able to see or breathe any more. and you will die, and he will eat you.” (p.178)

This extract tells us how Odibo portrays the soldier to the boy. This portrayal of the military man

as barbarian is not to be granted a space in a novel like The Last Duty. As mentioned earlier,

Aristotle is against this kind of lies which intend to showcase someone as a monster or an agent

of evil. The soldier is portrayed as unfriendly and wicked person. One might argue that since the

town was in a state of emergency, such a lie was appropriate to stop a child from going out. But

one must also not forget that the child’s mental makeup is different from that of an adult who can

decipher lies from truth. Psychologically, the child is given the notion that a soldier is an

inhumane character who acts only evil things. With this conscience, the child battles with what a

soldier is made up of as he grows and this affects him in any form of objective decisions he tries

to make about this profession.

Conclusively, as Aristotle opines his book Politics that “The Directors of Education, as they are

termed, should be careful what tales or stories the children hear, for all such things are designed

to prepare the way for the business of later life, and should be for the most part imitations of the

occupations which they will hereafter pursue in earnest.” It is absolutely obvious, as depicted in

the discussion, that the novel needs to be censored in order to prevent the youth from being

corrupted. Sigmund Freud, a renowned psychoanalyst, indicates that the human being has an

13
unconscious mind which possesses things which are not physically seen. Anything done is stored

up in this unconscious part of the human being. A little spark brings to bear all these stored

issues which were not known by the person. Because these things being read will be stored up in

the unconscious mind with its accompanying effects to be released in future. It is therefore

necessary to guard the youth from reading works that exhibit harmful, sensitive, inconvenient,

abusive, offensive and immoral acts. This novel, The last Duty is a novel that needs to be

censored to serve as a guide for the youth in their reading of the novel.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aristotle. Politics. Written 350 B.C.E Translated by Benjamin Jowett.

Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
1983

http://gilc.org/speech/osistudy/censorship/. Accessed on 24th November, 2011.

Longino H. E. “Pornography, Oppression and Freedom: A Closer Look” in Take Back The
Night: Women in Pornography. Lederer et al, eds. New York: William Morrow. 1980
Microsoft Encarta Dictionary. 2009

Okpewho, Isidore. The Last Duty. Ibadan: The Caxton Press. 1990

Simpson, Peter. A Philosophical Commentary on the Politics of Aristotle. USA: University of

North Carolina Press. Feb. 25, 2002

www.merriam – webster.com. Accessed on November 5, 2011.

www.wikipedia.com. Accessed on November 21, 2011.

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