Shift

Personality

Manipulative, greedy, flattering, Shift knows how to speak to each person according to their fears and desires. He despises those he exploits, starting with Puzzle. He ends up as a plaything of those even more cynical than himself.

Look and analysis

Shift is one of Lewis’s most political figures : the demagogue who manipulates religion, mixes beliefs to gain power, and reduces others to mere tools. The character has been read as a critique of all authoritarian religious deviations, and also of ideologies that promise "progress" by treating beings as merchandise. It is worth remembering that Lewis does not target monkeys or any real people, but an attitude.

Trivia

• The English name Shift evokes both cunning (shifty) and change.
• Ginger, the complicit cat, loses the power of speech after seeing Tash in the stable.

Relations

• Puzzle  : the donkey he exploits and disguises as a lion.
• Rishda Tarkaan and Ginger  : his accomplices, who end up despising him.
• Tash  : the god he falsely invokes and who carries him away.

Name and translations

Shift evokes cunning (shifty) and expedient. He calls himself "the man" and claims not to be a monkey.

Symbolism

Shift is often compared to the false prophet of the Apocalypse : he speaks in the name of a god he has fabricated. His invention of "Tashlan" blends the true and the false.