Nikos Kazantzakis’ Novel “Zorba the Greek”

Zorba the Greek is an exploration of man’s passions, and encourages the reader to explore more avenues of freedom in life. The two main characters, Alexis Zorba and the narrator, are opposites. The narrator, who is unnamed, is an intelligent, serious, and contemplative person, while Zorba is funny, compulsive, and spontaneous. Everyone he meets develops a strong impression of Zorba. Zorba is a man of seemingly limitless energy; he is passionate, willing to do anything anywhere. He denies no pleasures to himself.

He is a hedonist, loving and indulging in wine and women.

He lives life without guilt or shame, living for the moment and caring only for worldly pleasures. That is the essence of his freedom. Zorba’s version of freedom is attractive to the modern reader because the modern life is more like the narrator’s that Zorba’s. It is interesting that Zorba had little finger cut off because it was interfering with his pottery work. This is somewhat representative of his overall views on the world.

Pain and suffering are alright with him, as long as he is able to satisfy his intense passions and desires of the moment (particularly women).

Zorba is a somewhat idealized free spirit. He does not subscibe to any religion, and scorns a god who would punish the enjoyment of life. He is also without experience of formal education, and all his knowledge he has gained from wordly experiences. To Zorba freedom means the ability to satisfy all his worldly desires, while the narrator concerns himself with the philosophical aspects of life, believing that freedom can only be attained if one can reduce the world to philosophical, understandable components.

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To him real freedom exists on a metaphysical level. He is a bookish man, an observer (or perhaps a slave) of rationality and reason. But in spite of his ideas’ the narrator leads the more traditional life. The narrator is typical in that he is an idealist; he has a passion for educating people and challenging their established beliefs and assumptions about life. Zorba opposes this philosophically contentious aspect of the narrator because he assumes that most people are not willing to change, and such changes, when imposed upon them, will only hurt them.

Zorba is still not free in the sense that he is the unknowing subject of the prejudices in his society (this is especially apparent in his attitude towards women); on the other hand the narrator is also not free, in the sense that he is a slave of reason. Ironically it is mainly Zorba who educates his boss, the narrator, who is a university-educated intellectual. The narrator learns from Zorba the realities of life, particularly concerning love and freedom. The book is basically a protest on the poverty of modern intellectual life.

The narrator eventually realizes how stunted a life he had led, a life that has always gone through metaphysical and intellectual scrutiny. Freedom can be said to be the antithesis of reason. To be absolutely free (theoretically) one must abandon reason. The modern man, exemplified by the narrator, is burdened by existentialist questions that fail to make for a happy life, one such as Zorba leads. Instead of suppressing the fun-seeking irrational mind, humans should exploit this side of human nature as a catalyst of charge. By embracing human folly as inevitable, one can achieve the full potential of freedom in life.