Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Rethinking Morality
The Superman and the Will to Power
Death of God and Christianity
Eternal Recurrence
Summary
Analysis
As Zarathustra continues on his way, he feels warmer and more cheerful. Among a group of cows, he discovers a beggar, “a peaceable man and mountain sermonizer.” The man explains that he’s seeking happiness and sought it among these cows, learning from their “rumination”; they lack the disgust that characterizes modern man. When the beggar realizes he is in the presence of Zarathustra, he kisses him in delight. The beggar explains that humanity has not accepted him, hence going to the cows. They agree that it is hard to give to humanity in this day of mob rule. Zarathustra fondly invites the beggar to his cave.
The beggar symbolizes the Buddha (often regarded as a non-theistic religion). Nietzsche had great respect for Buddhism, seeing it as a religion that appealed to higher people, unlike Christianity. Like Zarathustra, the beggar doesn’t find a sympathetic hearing among the masses—he finds a more sympathetic audience among cows, showing just how deaf and resistant humanity is to new ideas.
Themes
