Shift in The Last Battle of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The novel The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis is a Christian allegory about the end of humankind and the Day of Judgment. It depicts how the world will end, and how human beings will be judged at the end of Time. In The Last Battle, the character of the ape Shift is an allegorical representation of the all of the worst temptations of humankind-the lust for power, greed for riches, and the desire not to take responsibility for making decisions. Shift only acts out of self-serving motivations. He does not aspire to do what is right. Shift merely wishes to fulfill his own ambitions, like Satan's desire to gain control over humanity in the Bible. Shift will do anything to realize his objectives, even if his means and goals are immoral. Shift tempts good people, like the donkey Puzzle to give up their God-given free will in what they think is their own self-interest, but is really in the devil Shift's own self-interest. Shift's misdeeds underline the core message of the novel, which is that people should trust their own moral instincts, and their own soul, rather than give up their ability to make choices to other people who only seem to know better.From the beginning of the novel, Shift uses fear and the appearance of moral, divine
Shift tells Puzzle he is incapable of making his own decisions. Shift cannot destroy the goodness within Puzzle and the other animals, even though he temporarily makes them obey his will. By doing so, Puzzle shows that he believes what other people say about donkeys' stupidity, even though it is not really true. Lewis uses the fact that human beings are often said to resemble, or are descended from apes, to stress his Christian perspective that all persons and animals must strive to fulfill their higher nature. Rather, he desires to help others help themselves, and to make their own good, moral decisions. In contrast to Aslan, Shift only has power when other people give it to him. The donkey trusts in the supposed knowledge of other, wiser beings rather than in his own moral compass that is a gift from the divine powers. The dangers of this misplaced moral trust are seem when Shift forces Puzzle to retrieve a lion skin from the nearby Cauldron Pool and to impersonate Aslan. The animals help Tirian to food and water, but are too afraid of Aslan to trust their own goodness and untie him. Shift demonstrates how supposedly intelligent creatures that seem to know what to do are really only satisfying self-serving motives and know nothing. Puzzle gives his own dignity and ability to makes choices, as given to him as part of the right of all living creatures, and instead gives it to the control of another creature. The animals, out of fear, do not question that Puzzle is Aslan, and behave badly, even though they do not want to, but because they are told to do so and feel mistakenly that they have no choice. These words may come from self-serving and greedy motives. Puzzle has been told to that he lacks intelligence so much that he cannot see the self-serving motivations of Shift and agrees to get the skin. Shift even claims to be an old, wise, and shrunken man, rather than an ape.
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