Captain Michales in Freedom or Death (1953) is but another representation of the Existential Hero whose story is central to all of Kazantzakis's important works. Like Christ in The Last Temptation of Christ (1955), Zorba in Zorba the Greek, and especially like Odysseus in Kazantzakis's The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938), Michales is a man torn by the conflicting impulses of spirit and flesh. He is not blinded by false hopes; he knows he will fail, yet he pursues his dream of freedom.

Kazantzakis manages to make his story both interesting and tragic by creating him as a man of great passion — not always good, not always right, but always sympathetic. Like a classical tragic hero, he suffers from hubris, but gains the readers' sympathy, largely because of his unswerving commitment to ideals.

The other characters in the novel are largely dramatizations of the various alternative lifestyles which...