Chapter 5 Summary

Old uncle Anagnosti invites everyone in the village for a meal to celebrate the castrating of the pigs. The old man relates the tale of his birth, and hushes Zorba and the narrator when they do not show enough reverence toward God and the Holy Virgin. Zorba is made to squirm, though, when Anagnosti relates the pigs' misfortune to human terms. The thought of castration leads Zorba on another tirade against his employer's socialist ideals, saying that preaching equality of the sexes to men like Anagnosti will only disrupt their way of life without accomplishing any real change (61). Worst of all, Zorba believes, would be to cast down Anagnosti's religion, which is at the center of his whole way of life. Unless one is prepared to usher in a better way of doing things, it is better that he leave others to their...