Scythe | Teen Ink

Scythe

November 27, 2019
By Anonymous

I suggest the book Scythe, Scythe is a dystopian novel written by the one and only Neal Shushterman. “Thou shalt kill” is the first of the 10 commandments for all Scythes. This seems like a strange commandment but there is a good reason for that. The job for the Scythes is to kill, kill to keep down the population.  The head of all scythes is run by the Thunderhead which is a big computer program. There are a few different kinds of Sythes and the way they kill and if they enjoy it or not. 

Some of the different main scythes/characters in the book scythe are Citra, Rowen, Scythe Faraday, Scythe Curie, Scythe Goddard. Citra and Rowen start off living a normal life for a 16 year olds. One day Scythe Faraday sends them both a letter to meet him somewhere. He then takes them a apprentices. Scythe Curie and Scythe Goddard come in a little later in the book but I’ll let you read the book to find out where they come in. 

All Scythes have different ways of gleaning there suspects. Gleaning is just the word they use for killing. And every Scythe has a limit of how many people they can glean a week which is 5. Scythe Faraday has one of my favorite ways of gleaning, he lets them take it in that their life is about to end. And he uses fast quick killing methods so save them the pain. He doesn’t let them call anyone or write a letter though. He asks them who he can give a message to but they can’t personally do it themselves. Scythe Curies way of doing it is quite strange, she doesn’t give them much time to take it in but also makes it fast like Faraday. After the gleaning she finds all the suspects family and invites them over for food and talks about them and asks what their loved one was like. Scythe Goddard has my least favorite way of gleaning. He doesn’t glean anyone for about 3 months at a time then after waiting a few months he goes to a place with a lot of people and just destroys them all with flamethrowers and machetes and is just way to violent. 

What I believe is the reasons for their choice of gleaning is this, for Faraday I think he’s just a nice guy and cares about them but doesn’t have a choice and has to glean them that’s why he does it so they have time to say what they want him to say to their loved ones. For Scythe Curie I think she does it so quickly because it’s hard for her to see them so scared and that they don’t want to die so she does it fast so she doesn’t have to see it so long. And the reason she invites them over is because she feels bad about it and wants the suspects family to know she did it only because she had to and likes to know what they were like. But for Scythe Goddard I don’t think much but that he’s an evil, bad, angry, man slaughtering Scythe.

Some Scythes kill for fun while some kill because it’s just their job all because the Thunderhead thinks the population is too high. Overall there are some Scythes that kill for the right reasons and some for the wrong. I think it's kind of interesting seeing the different methods, and I really enjoyed reading this novel. Now that I told you all about the book, what do you think about if it’s a good thing or not for there to be Scythes and the job they have to do?



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