This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Zorba mean when he describes being married "dishonestly"?

2. In regards to food, what three categories does Zorba say that the three different types of men turn their food into?

3. Why does Zorba watch the widow's home?

4. Who does Zorba suggest that the narrator romantically pursue?

5. What act has Zorba performed that symbolizes the connection between freedom and manliness?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Zorba represent in the story?

2. How does the narrator describe Zorba the first time he sees him dancing?

3. What does Karayannis's letter from Africa remind the narrator that he has always wanted to do?

4. How does the narrator's memory of the butterfly impact his feelings about approaching the widow?

5. Do you think the narrator has actually lost all interest and faith in poetry as he claims in Chapter 12? How so?

6. What kinds of responsibilities does Zorba take on at the initiation of his friendship with the narrator.

7. Describe the painting that Zorba presents to Madame Hortense.

8. Discuss the two goals that the narrator sets for himself at the end of Chapter 4? How is this a shift from the beginning of the story?

9. Describe the narrator's counter argument to Zorba's connection between manliness and freedom regarding his missing finger?

10. What significance does the fact that Madame Hortense is a widow have toward the theme of manliness?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

One theme throughout the story is that God and the devil may be one and the same creature.

Part 1) How does the narrator's writing of the Buddha Manuscript exhibit this theme?

Part 2) How does the atheist Zorba's description of both God and the devil support this theme?

Part 3) What does this mean in the narrator's search for ultimate "freedom"?

Essay Topic 2

The narrator's intention in the Buddha Manuscript shifts throughout the course of the novel.

Part 1) What does the manuscript begin as, and what does it become? What instigates the change in the narrator's intention?

Part 2) Do you think the narrator achieves his revised goal or his original goal with the finished product?

Part 3) Zorba constantly reinforces that living in the physical world is living in the mystery.

• Do you think that language is physical?

• Could the narrator have created a physical change in his life simply by writing the Buddha Manuscript?

Essay Topic 3

A constant struggle in the novel exists between what is fated and what is the result of enacted will.

Part 1) How do the narrator and Zorba differ on the topic of fate? Does either one think that fate can be altered?

Part 2) How does his opinion on fate impact the way the narrator handles his relationship with the widow? What is Zorba's opinion on this?

Part 3) Zorba indicates that he believes all men fall into the marriage "trap" eventually. He also speaks of men and women's particular and inborn flaws. Would these opinions be relegations to fate, or would they, by Zorba's law, be things that an active will could prevent?

Short Answer Key

1. What does Zorba mean when he describes being married "dishonestly"?

Any sexual adventure.

2. In regards to food, what three categories does Zorba say that the three different types of men turn their food into?

Fat and manure, work and good humor, and God.

3. Why does Zorba watch the widow's home?

He wants to make sure she is not going to bed alone.

4. Who does Zorba suggest that the narrator romantically pursue?

The widow.

5. What act has Zorba performed that symbolizes the connection between freedom and manliness?

He cut part of his finger off because it got in the way of his pottery.

Short Essay Answer Key

1. What does Zorba represent in the story?

Zorba represents a man who lives for the physical world and ultimately for the individual self in that world. He is an agent of instinct and lacks theoretical reason for his actions. For the narrator, Zorba is a potential symbol of freedom in the narrator's quest to find freedom.

2. How does the narrator describe Zorba the first time he sees him dancing?

The narrator says Zorba looks like he is wearing rubber shoes. He also says that Zorba's soul looks like it is trying to fling his body like a meteor into the darkness.

3. What does Karayannis's letter from Africa remind the narrator that he has always wanted to do?

He has a desire to see and touch as much of the world as he possibly can before he dies.

4. How does the narrator's memory of the butterfly impact his feelings about approaching the widow?

The narrator had attempted to help the butterfly emerge from the cocoon by blowing warm air on it. Doing this made the butterfly emerge too quickly and die. The narrator realizes while meditating on this memory, that an individual must "confidently obey the eternal rhythm." He knows, in turn, that he can't speed his relationship with the widow and must let it unfold naturally.

5. Do you think the narrator has actually lost all interest and faith in poetry as he claims in Chapter 12? How so?

No. When the narrator says of the Buddha, "I must mobilize words and their necromantic power...invoke magic rhythms; lay siege to him, cast a spell over him and drive him out of my entrails! I must throw over him the net of images, catch him and free myself!" he demonstrates a transformation in the way he sees poetry. He sees it less as contemplation and more as a physical act of using language. His use of the craft has changed, but it is untrue that he no longer has use for it as he so claims.

6. What kinds of responsibilities does Zorba take on at the initiation of his friendship with the narrator.

Zorba agrees to act as foreman of the lignite mine. He also promises to cook the narrator soup and play him music on his santuri.

7. Describe the painting that Zorba presents to Madame Hortense.

The painting has four huge battleships on it in red, gold, gray, and black, each with a flag from one of four countries: England, France, Italy, and Russia. Leading the battleship as a siren was Madame Hortense, naked with a yellow ribbon around her neck and holding four strings attached to the ships.

8. Discuss the two goals that the narrator sets for himself at the end of Chapter 4? How is this a shift from the beginning of the story?

The narrator wants to rid himself of Buddha and the abstract thinking that comes along with Buddha. He also wants to be completely present in the physical world of men. He has wanted to find this physicality since the beginning of the story when his old friend's words inspire him to seek such a life, and begin his journey to Crete. Originally, he was completely invested in philosophizing as well. However, the fact that he wants to exorcise Buddha from his thinking is a definite shift in his character.

9. Describe the narrator's counter argument to Zorba's connection between manliness and freedom regarding his missing finger?

The narrator argues that although such passions are admirable, they could also possibly lead to the desire to remove more crucial body parts. He suggests that Zorba might eventually want to remove his sexual organs, which would have a much more life-altering and drastic result.

10. What significance does the fact that Madame Hortense is a widow have toward the theme of manliness?

Madame Hortense is a character on whom Zorba and the narrator choose instantly to rely upon for shelter. The fact that she is completely devoid of Zorba's "manliness" (as a widowed woman) and has outlived her four great lovers, admirals who could be classified as the most manly of all men, speaks to a contrasting energy of freedom neither articulated by the narrator nor by Zorba.