Previous Next

Shiftlet is referred to as a “tramp,” a skilled handyman, and a narcissistic opportunist. When he first comes onto the Crater property, even before he introduces himself to the women, he eyes the rusting car as a potential means of escape from his life as a drifter. He ingratiates himself to the elder Lucynell, the old woman, and views the time and energy he spends with them as a necessary investment to get what he wants, which is the opportunity to get farther in his travels than he is able to on foot.

Shiftlet is missing half of his left arm, which both aligns him with the younger Lucynell as someone atypical and sets him apart because his difference is immediately apparent. The “crooked cross” his body forms when he spreads open his arms establishes him as a subversion of a Christ-like figure. He is a character others look to as a possible savior, a role he is incapable of playing. This provides a template for his actions, in which he says things that indicate a deep love for the Craters and humanity at large, even as he is undermining those around him and plotting the very things he claims to denounce.

Shiftlet likes to talk at people. He desires some acknowledgement, even if he can carry the conversation by himself. He enjoys an audience, which he loses when he leaves the Crater home with the younger Lucynell. She cannot be a conversational partner, or even an oratorical audience, and this deficiency increases Shiftlet’s loneliness. The hitchhiking boy he later picks up is the only person in the story who pushes back on his monologues, as he literally throws himself away from Shiftlet rather than listen to him. In response, rather than reconsidering his behavior, Shiftlet views the boy’s action as a testament to his own beliefs that the world is fundamentally rotten.

Previous section Character List Next section The Old Woman

Take a Study Break