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

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Zorba feel about women?

2. How did Zorba temporarily keep track of his sexual relationships?

3. What is the primary message in the book that the narrator is reading?

4. What or who does Zorba live for?

5. What body part is Zorba missing a part of?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Describe the narrator's relationship with his old friend.

3. How does the narrator try to get the widow out of his mind at the beginning of Chapter 10?

4. How does the fact that Zorba is missing half of his finger relate to his connection between manliness and freedom?

5. What does Zorba represent in the story?

6. Explain the parrot's role in the life of Madame Hortense and her guests.

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

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

9. What does Zorba do while in Candia?

10. What does Zorba's version of God look like?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The santuri instrument is an important symbol throughout the novel. It is one of many modes of expression between the two main characters.

Part 1) What does the santuri symbolize in terms of language?

Part 2) What is the significance of the fact that Zorba brags about his talent on the instrument yet will only play it when he's in the mood?

Part 3) Why do you think the santuri is the object left to the narrator when Zorba dies?

Essay Topic 2

Kazantzakis seems to use destruction, as opposed to creation, as a central theme which moves both main characters away from their original states and toward something new.

Part 1) What things, ideas, and people are destroyed in the novel? Which of these seem most symbolic to you?

Part 2) What two major destructions, which also happen to be the two great "works" of the narrator and Zorba, occur almost simultaneously near the end of the book?

• Are these parallel losses?

• Is one greater than the other?

• How do these two losses make the two characters more similar to one another?

• How do they make them more different?

Part 3) Do the human deaths in the story seem to add or take away from the overall circumstances of the two main characters? Why?

Essay Topic 3

After Zorba's return from Candia, the narrator attempts to convince him that the power of a mind concentrated on one thing is the singular path to great accomplishment.

Part 1) How does Zorba respond to this attempted lesson?

• Is the narrator's lesson on meditation received and practiced or do both file it with the "Void"?

• Do you agree with the narrator?

Part 2) How might concentration on a single thing threaten Zorba's way of life and very existence?

Part 3) Zorba has returned from Candia with an appearance altered to look younger. This is a strange juxtaposition to the narrator's focus on meditation.

• Are there parallels in the two men's behaviors?

• Or are the simply at odds with one another?

Short Answer Key

1. How does Zorba feel about women?

He does not take them seriously but enjoys them physically.

2. How did Zorba temporarily keep track of his sexual relationships?

He cut off a lock of each lover's hair.

3. What is the primary message in the book that the narrator is reading?

It emphasizes the virtue of possessing nothing.

4. What or who does Zorba live for?

Man as individual.

5. What body part is Zorba missing a part of?

Finger.

Short Essay Answer Key

1. 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.

2. Describe the narrator's relationship with his old friend.

The narrator and his friend have a deep connection and love for one another. However, the connection is largely unspoken as the two men often argue rather than express emotion to one another. The soldier friend is more of an adventurer than the narrator, and often teases the narrator for being such a bookworm. The two men contrast one another; the narrator is more of a philosopher who is focused on a higher power, while the friend is a soldier who believes in living his life for his fellow man and his nation. The connection between the two men, despite their differences, is clear in their agreement to send mental messages to one another if they sense danger. This obviously indicates that they believe strongly in their connection and friendship.

3. How does the narrator try to get the widow out of his mind at the beginning of Chapter 10?

The narrator views the widow as a temptation of the Evil One and focuses on writing his Buddha Manuscript in order to exorcise her image and the lust he feels for her from his mind. To him, his writing is comparable to the force of savages facing beasts with their spears.

4. How does the fact that Zorba is missing half of his finger relate to his connection between manliness and freedom?

Zorba says that he cut part of his finger off because it got in the way of making pottery. He argues that anything that gets in the way of man doing what he wants should be removed. Because it takes a great deal of physical and mental courage to remove a body part, the connection for Zorba is strong.

5. 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.

6. Explain the parrot's role in the life of Madame Hortense and her guests.

Hortense's parrot is a constant reminder of Madame Hortense's greatest love. As a possession, it has been trained to say Canavaro's name repeatedly and therefore to challenge the immediacy of Zorba's manliness.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. What does Zorba do while in Candia?

He meets a young girl with whom he has an affair. He also spends all of the boss's money.

10. What does Zorba's version of God look like?

Zorba claims to be an atheist, but he does tell the narrator that God is likely a more outrageous version of himself for whom forgiveness is not difficult, and who does not want to be worshiped.