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Chapter 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Scythe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age
Mortality and Life
Surveillance, Corruption, and Justice
Morality, Compassion, and Choices
Summary
Analysis
Scythe Curie admits that there are things that even scythes don't understand. Earlier, a woman asked Curie where she'll go after gleaning, and didn't accept Curie's explanation that her memories and "life recording" are stored in the Thunderhead, while her body would be buried. After Curie gleaned the woman, she admitted she doesn't know where people go when they're dead.
This woman's question shows that even though humans are immortal at this point, they still have the exact same questions about death and the possibility of life after it that people did in the Age of Mortality. In other words, humans aren't as fundamentally different now as Citra and Rowan might think.
Themes
One morning, Faraday announces that he'll glean alone. He leads Citra to the weapons den to polish blades. He pulls down a rapier and explains that as a young scythe, he gleaned a fencer. They dueled three times until finally, Faraday won. Faraday says that that man is the only person who ever thanked him. Citra asks why Faraday used her knife when he came to her apartment block. He explains he wanted to test Citra's reaction. She begins to polish, wondering if she's capable of beheading someone.
The experience with the fencer likely impressed upon Faraday the importance of treating each of victims as individuals deserving of attention to detail and compassion. This also illustrates how thankless of a job being a scythe is, since if Faraday is about 180 years old, he's then been gleaning for around 160 years—and has only been thanked once for his work.
Themes
Literary Devices
Faraday then tasks Rowan with doing research for his next gleaning. Rowan almost lets the Thunderhead help him, using Faraday's list of parameters, but catches himself—scythes can't ask the Thunderhead for help. He gradually uses Faraday's parameters to narrow down the population of MidMerica to four people, all strong swimmers, dog lovers, and local heroes. Rowan continues to research the four possibilities, hoping something will make a choice obvious, until Faraday returns home. Faraday shouts for Rowan to choose one, and Rowan points to a man with bedhead. Rowan closes his eyes and Faraday praises him. Faraday says this should never be easy.
The next afternoon, Rowan's chosen man returns home to find Faraday in his living room. Rowan closes the front door, locking the panicking man in, and explains that he's been selected for gleaning. Rowan says that he fits a profile: lots of people used to drown in flooded rivers trying to save their pets. Citra emerges from a bedroom, having sedated the man's dogs and suffered a bite, and Rowan kneels in front of the man. He tells him that he's a good person. The man closes his eyes when he learns that Faraday plans to drown him, but refuses Citra's offer of a sedative and follows Faraday to the river.
Themes
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Citra is impressed by how Rowan behaved, as he did most of the emotional work. She refuses to let Faraday take her to the hospital to have her bite healed, as she feels she owes the man a night of pain. Rowan is modest about his admirable behavior, which makes Citra mad and also attracted to him.
Themes
