The Narrator

Unnamed throughout the book, the narrator is scholar who is constantly chastised by his friends for valuing books over first-hand experience. With his closest friend at sea fighting for the Greek cause, this narrator resolves to create his own active destiny. He leases a lignite mine on Crete, and, before leaving for the island, hires Zorba to act as foreman based on a zesty first impression made in a bar. He comes to admire Zorba for his passionate, instinctual approach to life, unencumbered by the learned and esoteric thoughts that hold the narrator's life in check. Throughout the book, as the narrator witnesses Zorba in action, he holds this character in greater awe and reverence, yet he can never fully emulate this friend's behavior. As he matures, though, he comes to incorporate some of Zorba's lessons, filtering them through his own nature as a man given to...