Zorba the Greek | Themes & Symbolism

Zorba the Greek Significant Topics

The Nature of God

While the narrator is the man most concerned with esoteric thought, he does not invoke God nearly as often as the atheistic sensualist, Zorba. To Zorba, God is a man like himself, given to every bit of mischief and ready to forgive any transgression. He also suggests more than once that God and the devil are, in fact, the same person. Zorba also places the blame for woman's wily nature at God's feet, as well as the responsibility to pity man for his folly. There are several moments when Zorba asks the narrator point-blank whether there is a God (Note: Zorba doesn't ask whether the narrator believes there is a God, but if there actually is one), and the answer never satisfies him. It seems as though Zorba does not believe in the traditional Christian deity but requires a god of some sort and frames him in the Christian terms...
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