larly ascetic, and Zorba, the symbol of the Greek idea of the vitality of life, yet also a naive, trusting man:
The conflict which is faced by the scholar-narrator of the myth-history is the traditional one between "body" and "mind-soul"; but in the center, the fulcrum of the two poles, is the yawning Buddhist Nothing which acts as the central force of the entire work (Doulis 36).
Lewis A. Richards indicates that in 1967 Kazantzakis was still a relatively unknown author in the United States and that little criticism had been addressed to his works. Richards states that one of the reasons why Kazantzakis may not have caught on with the American public was his dedication to Nietzschean philosophy, especially the strong belief in the superman. Richards finds that essentially Kazantzakis has a pessimistic outlook that is evident in his fiction and that fits with elements in Nietzschean philosophy as to the death of God and the need for huma
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