Is Zarathustra an overman?
Possible Answer: The “overman,” sometimes translated as the “superman,” is not a person with some kind of physical super powers, but is instead an individual who has evolved beyond the baseness of humanity and its institutions. Humanity is tied to fear by institutions such as the church and the state. Institutions such as these set forth binary categories such as right and wrong or good and evil. Having one’s actions fall into the “wrong” category can mean punishment or even eternal damnation. The overman rejects such categories. Nothing he does can be considered “wrong,” nor can it be considered “right” by the people of society. These categories do not mean anything to the overman because he has transcended them and found happiness. Zarathustra is an overman, but throughout the book, the reader sees that the state of the overman is not a static, unchanging position. Zarathustra evolves as an overman just as he teaches his disciples to evolve into the overman. By the end of the book, Z
