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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
Scythe is a bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story for both Rowan and Citra. Both are pulled out of their normal childhoods and trained to become a scythe. Their apprenticeship reflects their more personal coming-of-age: not only do they have to grow up and learn how to be an adult, they must also learn how to kill and pass a series of tests to prove it.
It is important to note, though, that the novel is a double bildungsroman, tracking not only the development of both characters but the development of the relationship between them. Rowan and Citra's fates are inextricably tied together due to Xenocrates's ruling that one of them would have to glean the other once made a scythe. In other words, once one of them comes of age, they will have to kill the other, preventing the other from ever coming of age. This adds an additional layer of fear and tension to the normal structure of a coming-of-age novel.
Scythe is also a science fiction novel depicting a utopian future. The novel claims that this utopia is set in the future of our own world. Stories like this are sometimes referred to as "futurism" and usually attempt to offer commentary on the present world as well as the imagined future one. The novel's future reflects anxieties from the real world, both at the time of writing in 2015 and today: the growth of artificial intelligence, a widespread and often unchecked surveillance state, and the availability of medical care to all. These problems of the present world are reflected in the futuristic developments in the novel, a common tactic in futurist novels such as this one.
Related Themes:
