Spending time in Crete ignites conflict between the narrator’s modernity, his education, his attachment to reason and logic, and the irrational, more authentic perspectives of Zorba and the villagers. At the beginning of his sojourn, the narrator mentions that renting and operating the lignite mind is a means of overcoming his “bookworm” identity. The narrator feels that he has reached an impasse where the world of ideas he inhabits has only led to spiritual malaise. He aspires to reach a point of self-sufficient contentment through this close contact with the villagers, as well as a more active life, but for all the beauty the narrator encounters, peasant life in proves brutal. Zorba allows him to see that authenticity is not found in external concepts like tradition and modernity, but in individual lived experience.

Zorba plays a central role in this clash between tradition and modernity, as a mediatory figure between the narrator and the villagers. Zorba is also a figure from the narrator’s cultural past, resembling the travelers who used to tell the narrator’s grandfather stories in exchange for hospitality. Unlike the villagers, Zorba’s wide experiences allow him to transcend blind submission to ideas of God and religion, and allow him to connect with the narrator.