Literary notes about shiftless (AI summary)
The term “shiftless” has been deployed in literature as a pointed critique of laziness, ineptitude, and moral or practical failure. Authors like Thomas Carlyle use it to depict troubled, unproductive figures caught in despair ([1], [2], [3]), while Harriet Beecher Stowe employs the word to denounce inefficient management and disorder in both individuals and societal structures ([4], [5], [6]). Similarly, L. M. Montgomery and Sinclair Lewis use “shiftless” not only to describe idle or aimless characters ([7], [8], [9], [10]) but also to underscore a broader cultural disdain for mediocrity and lack of discipline. The term, occasionally charged with a moral judgment as in Louisa May Alcott’s and Henry David Thoreau’s works ([11], [12]), even finds a contrasting nuance in the work of figures like Thomas Jefferson and W. E. B. Du Bois, suggesting its flexible yet enduring role in critiquing personal and collective shortcomings ([13], [14]).
- Poor M. de Gouvion is shiftless in this extremity;—a man shiftless, perturbed; who will one day commit suicide.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - Poor M. de Gouvion is shiftless in this extremity;—a man shiftless, perturbed; who will one day commit suicide.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - And poor Gouvion: he who sat shiftless in that Insurrection of Women!
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - “Such shiftless management, such waste, such confusion, I never saw!”
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - “But to have no time, no place, no order,—all going on in this shiftless way!”
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - “It’s a dreadful shiftless one,” said aunty.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - It IS out-of-the-way, so it's likely some poor, shiftless, wandering family will rent it—and over-run it—and
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery - He was clever and shiftless—just like a man.
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery - "I see—shiftless—can't make or keep.
— from Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery - Min was pore and as shiftless as Jim.
— from Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery - if I need not do it with a shiftless Irish girl to drive me distracted by pretending to help.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott - Dress a scarecrow in your last shift, you standing shiftless by, who would not soonest salute the scarecrow?
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau - He was neither shiftless nor worthless, but what others did he could not do.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Shiftless?
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois
