Zorba and the narrator have complete opposite lives, actions, and views. Zorba represents the imagination and the excited, free life. Zorba's life is a sundry of random, unexpected experiences. However, the narrator's life is the exact opposite extreme. He is a conservative who is trying to comprehend life, but cannot because he has not let him self let go and experience the simplicity of chance. To the narrator, life has to be planned and analyzed. He never knows true happiness, because he cannot let himself experience the simplicity that is possible in life.

"Leave their eyes closed, boss, and let them go on dreaming... unless when they open their eyes you can show them a better world than the darkness in which they are gallivanting at present." (p.61)

Zorba is the narrator's mentor. He is constantly telling the narrator to live with what makes him...