Point of View

Nikos Kazantzakis' novel, The Last Temptation of Christ is told consistently by a neutral and anonymous narrator using the third person omniscient, past tense. The narrator is fond of the central character, Jesus of Nazareth, despite Jesus' many neuroses and obsessions. He shows Jesus fighting with God, who for a decade has been picking him up by the head with vulture-like claws and insisting that he accept his fate as Messiah. Jesus petulantly turns to cross-making for the Romans so God will give up on him. He is a pariah in town and his long-suffering mother's immense disappointment. When he runs away to a monastery, however, she follows to bring him back.

God convinces Jesus to preach about the Kingdom of God, and he uses familiar imagery to speak in parables. Starving people, however, want food not words, and a tension is set up that lasts...