Morality, Compassion, and Choices Theme Analysis

As the novel draws the reader deeper into the political divisions within the scythe organization and specifically, after Citra and Rowan are taken on by Scythe Curie and Scythe Goddard respectively, Scythe asks a number of questions about morality and human nature. By comparing the different licensed scythes and how they choose to train their apprentices, Scythe considers whether or not behaving morally and compassionately is something a person will do when there are few or no consequences for behaving otherwise, as well as what it even means to be compassionate in their line of work.

Prior to becoming apprentices, neither Citra nor Rowan think particularly highly of scythes. They generally find them cruel, unfeeling, and at times, not even especially human because their job is to kill others, something that Citra and Rowan don't find positive or moral. However, the scythe journal entries of Scythe Curie, which appear at the beginnings of most chapters, paint a different picture of what it means to be a good scythe in a moral sense. Curie meditates often on whether or not she's doing a good job and is compassionate enough to her victims and their families. When Scythe Faraday takes Citra and Rowan on as his apprentices, he confirms that, as far as he's concerned, Curie has the right idea: a good scythe is a compassionate scythe who doesn't think that killing people is good or right.

Both Scythe Curie and Scythe Faraday are meticulous in their methods, something that they believe allows them to be as compassionate as possible. Curie believes that gleaning should mimic death from the Age of Mortality, so she gives her victims no time to prepare—but then cooks her victims' families dinner the night after and provides them some closure. Faraday, on the other hand, diligently and empirically chooses his methods of killing as well as his victims, as he believes that people are all individuals and deserve to die in a way that aligns with who they are. He also attends every funeral for the people he gleans. This suggests that, as far as Faraday and Curie are concerned, compassion is something that comes with research and attention to detail. Essentially, it's something that they can develop when they take a keen interest in their victims and the victims' families, which in turn makes every death a personal, devastating experience for the scythe as well.

Following Scythe Faraday's (supposed) self-gleaning, after which Scythe Curie takes on Citra while Scythe Goddard takes over Rowan's training, Rowan discovers that not all scythes are as moral or as kind as Faraday was. While Citra continues to learn compassion first and foremost, Goddard, who is known for bloody, violent mass gleanings, teaches Rowan to enjoy killing and dehumanize his victims. Thanks to Rowan's innately compassionate personality as well as to his early training with Faraday, he's well aware that Goddard is turning him into a monster and a "killing machine," rather than a person performing a horrifying yet necessary service to humanity. The novel does imply, however, that despite Rowan's training and the awful things that Goddard makes him do, Rowan is able to maintain a sense of moral righteousness by choosing, at various points, to exercise his compassion and help potential victims of Goddard's crew escape. This creates the possibility that while a person's sense of morality is partially something innate and partially something learned, the true marker of morality is whether or not a person chooses to exercise his or her compassion—Rowan, after his training, admits in his inner monologue that he has become a monster and does enjoy killing, but he still chooses to ultimately use this transformation for good by gleaning Goddard and Goddard's cronies. Further, after becoming a scythe, Citra hears of a rogue, unordained scythe known as Scythe Lucifer—whom she knows is Rowan—who takes out corrupt scythes with what he learned from Goddard. With this, Scythe suggests that while anyone is capable of becoming a compassionless monster like Goddard, it's also possible for anyone to use the exact same skills and thought processes to create positive change in the world.