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“That a scythe is merely the instrument of death, but it is your hand that swings me. You and your parents, and everyone else in this world are the wielders of scythes." Then he gently put the knife in her hands. "We are all accomplices. You must share the responsibility."
Faraday offers this thought to Citra when he returns her family’s kitchen knife after he uses it to glean their neighbor in Chapter 1. The blood-soaked Faraday wants Citra and her family to continue using the knife as a reminder of their own responsibility in his work. Citra promptly throws the knife away as soon as he leaves, but Faraday’s words here express a poignant complaint about this world’s norms. In defeating death and being content to allow scythes to handle gleaning without any real oversight, humanity has abandoned any sense of responsibility or culpability. Leaving these decisions to scythes is not any fairer to them than it is to the people they select for gleaning. Faraday’s request makes Citra uncomfortable, but that’s the very point. He wants others to feel the mournful weight of the work he does instead of blithely continuing with their lives, indifferent to the horror of death until it unexpectedly confronts them.
Bridge repair and urban planning could be handled by the Thunderhead, but taking a life was an act of conscience and consciousness. Since it could not be proven that the Thunderhead had either, the Scythedom was born. I do not regret the decision, but I often wonder if the Thunderhead would have done a better job.
This excerpt from Curie’s gleaning journal, placed just before Chapter 5, recounts a history lesson on how Scythedom came to be while also critiquing the decision in retrospect. Curie openly questions whether it was truly wise to cede control of death to humans rather than to the pragmatically efficient Thunderhead. But the architects of this policy ignored another possibility: that they could leave death to nature and do away with the technology that now extended a person’s life in perpetuity. Curie’s critique provides a foundation for questioning Scythedom while also ignoring this alternative. Though actively taking a life may require conscience and consciousness, natural death doesn’t require either one. In their well-meaning quest to improve humanity’s lot after the defeat of death, the founders of Scythedom created an inherently artificial system for death that legally sanctions murder. Just as this world inadvertently creates more problems in its search for perfection, the system of scything is an imperfect solution with unexpectedly negative consequences that most people nonetheless accept without further thought.
“I love you," he said.
"Same here," she responded. "Now get lost."
Rowan and Citra have this exchange in Chapter 40 after she spares him from gleaning. Before he flees with Faraday, the two teenagers exchange these expressions of love. Citra and Rowan never have a conventional romance. Indeed, they only briefly kiss one time and spend much of the book apart from each other. But their love for each other drives them to decide that they will not glean one another, despite considerable pressure from others. The marked difference in how they express this love reflects their distinct personalities. While Rowan straightforwardly expresses his affection for Citra, she responds in her own, more guarded, way. Still, their open expression of the love they’ve long harbored—but rarely acknowledged to themselves, let alone anyone else or each other—finally confirms the special but unspoken role they play in each other’s lives. By this point, the two are on the cusp of pursuing very different paths, with Citra en route to being a scythe and Rowan becoming a fugitive. However, this brief conversation serves as an affirmation of the lingering humanity of the girl who has just become Scythe Anastasia and the boy who will soon become Lucifer, the vengeful vigilante of Scythedom.
