Zorba the Greek

1
Zorba the Greek

• An existential journey

2
Influence on structure and philosophy

• Dante
• Zorba as Virgil (Human Reason)
• Lion (violence, sins against God), Wolf (carnal),
  Leopard (fraud)
• You are like a lion shall we say or a wolf
• Henri Bergson
• élan vital vital force of the human spirit
• Asceticism is an insufficient is an insuffiecient
  way for man to appreciate his humanity
• Plato, Homer, Goethe, Neitzche, Cervantes,
  Darwin, et. al.

3
Dualities

• God vs. man, freedom vs. slavery, belief vs.
  agnosticism, etc.
• Sythesis-waves of contradictory impuses
• Not Apollo vs. Dionysis marriage

4
Hope

• Cretan Glance
• Age-old elements seen with daily freshness and
  creativity
• Doing the best with what youve got
• Staring down the abyss
• Hope for a life well lived if not for eternal
  salvation
• Narrator searches for hope finds it loses it and
  finds it again (death of widow, last words of
  novel)

5
Women

• The ultimate duality
• The ultimate synthesis
• Woman as a sacred mystery not human,
  everlasting business, incomprehensible
• An earthly search for answers and God
• Holy Virgin of Revenge

6
Buddha

• Apollonian antithesis-alternate path
• Duality Each of us is God, Buddha said. Each
  of us knows al. We need only open our minds to
  hear our own wisdom

7
Nature

• Influence of Darwin
• Nature shows the miracle of God and earthly
  progress every day (Cretan Glance)
• Cavafy comparison

8
Conclusion

• Existential exploration of the highest order
  which has been undermined by its own brilliant
  characterizations and entertainment value.