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Summary
Part Five: Scythehood, Chapters 37-40
H.S. Volta journal entry
Volta doesn’t participate in Rand and Chomsky’s conversations about how they will one day self-glean because his job is to glean others.
Chapter 37: Shaking the Tree
Rowan has reported the deaths of the rest of Goddard’s elegy as a terrible accident. Clearly suspicious, Xenocrates tells him that witnesses saw a scythe talking to firefighters and that Goddard’s remains seem dismembered. Rowan feigns ignorance and then suggests that Xenocrates return Esme to her home. Impressed by Rowan’s slyness, Xenocrates realizes that he knows his secret and agrees to call off the investigation into Goddard’s death.
H.S. Prometheus journal entry
Prometheus, the first World Supreme Blade, explains that becoming a scythe must be morally difficult. They must undergo a terrible final test, which also must remain secret to preserve its integrity.
Chapter 38: The Final Test
En route to the final test, Curie refuses to tell Citra what it will consist of. Once ushered into the test, Citra realizes she must kill her little brother Ben before a committee of five scythes. Citra strenuously objects, but the committee tells her it is not a real gleaning because they will ensure that an ambudrone evacuates him for revival. They also remind her that nobody is forcing her to do anything, as she must choose to kill of her own free will. She eventually accepts the necessity of the test to demonstrate inner strength.
Citra approaches Ben and kindly reassures him while she removes his restraints. She honestly answers his questions about what is happening and even lets him momentarily hold her knife. As he answers her about what ice cream he will eat in the revival center, she plunges the knife into him. Afterward, the committee argues about her technique. Some believe she was inefficient and reckless while others argue that her methods demonstrate real compassion. Afterward, Curie reluctantly informs Citra that Rowan shot his own mother before the committee had even finished reading the instructions.
H.S. Socrates journal entry
A scythe named Socrates records a poem describing scything as humanity’s tool.
Chapter 39: Winter Conclave
At the Conclave, Rowan wears black robes, the only color scythes avoid, and many of the scythes openly fear him. Curie invites Citra to stay on as her junior scythe after her ordination and advises her to not look at Rowan or talk to him, though Citra privately has a plan that may spare them both. Rowan assumes Citra will win and glean him, and he does not blame her. In the unlikely event he wins, he has decided to refuse to glean her and fight to defend her against all comers. Despite the grim circumstances, Rowan still finds himself thinking wistfully about what his life could have been with Citra. After heated debate, the Conclave resolves to ban the use of fire. Some openly state Goddard did not die in an accident, insinuating that Rowan killed him, but Rowan does not react. Finally, Xenocrates calls Citra and Rowan forward to announce who won the apprenticeship battle between them.
H.S. Curie journal entry
Curie admits that the bejeweling of new scythes always leaves her with mixed emotions. Her pride in their fresh idealism mingles with the knowledge that they will soon become disillusioned and burnt out.
Chapter 40: The Ordained
Citra wins the apprenticeship. She selects Anastasia Romanov as her Patron Historic, a name that is considered unorthodox. Though some scythes argue Anastasia is not a worthy name because she accomplished nothing, Citra argues that is not Anastasia’s fault and vows to be the change Anastasia could have been if she had lived. After receiving her scythe ring, when she is supposed to glean Rowan, Citra punches him in the face with her ring, saying it is revenge for breaking her neck. The scythes realize all their rings are glowing and stop the gleaning. Her punch has conferred him immunity, though she denies having done so intentionally. As the Conclave debates what to do with Rowan until his immunity expires, Citra whispers to him that she has knives and a getaway car waiting for him. They say they love each other before she urges him to flee. He fights off the other scythes and discovers Faraday is driving the getaway car.
H.S. Anastasia journal entry
Anastasia, formerly Citra, fears the influence of immoral scythes on the world. She has heard rumors that someone going by the name Lucifer kills corrupt scythes with fire. He is not an ordained scythe. She hopes that if she encounters Lucifer, formerly Rowan, he will consider her one of the good ones and spare her as she once spared him.
Analysis
The Conclave requires apprentices to undergo a terrible final test as a recognition of the great moral responsibility entrusted to scythes and acknowledgment of the sacrifice this responsibility demands, but the depiction of Citra’s test suggests this underlying premise is highly flawed. Though scythes must undergo the heartrending test of killing a family member as a requirement for ordination because it is supposed to be character-building, the novel has repeatedly demonstrated that being a scythe is no guarantee of ethical behavior. The deceased Goddard and his bloodthirsty accomplices Rand and Chomsky presumably passed this test and learned nothing from it. As the committee even reassures Citra, the relative in question is not truly gleaned, meaning that though the act of killing them will be emotionally painful it has nowhere near the sense of finality that their professional gleanings will have. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that a family member is the person with the most emotional leverage on any one individual. Rowan shocks Curie and Citra with the news that he remorselessly shot his own mother without a second thought. However, Rowan is far closer to friends like Tyger, Citra, and Volta than he ever was to his own family. Despite the test’s ostensibly noble intentions, it rests on flawed assumptions that dull its intended result.
Citra’s behavior in the final test foreshadows the kind of scythe she intends to be, as well as her strikingly iconoclastic actions in the book’s final pages. She respects the traditions of Scythedom, but she also does not allow them to dictate her behavior or dissuade her from what she considers the best course of action. She shows her brother Ben great compassion in the same way she later shows Rowan mercy, despite everyone else’s advice that he is a lost cause who would be better off dead than alive. Her controversial choice of adopting an untraditional name—that of a teenage Russian grand duchess most famous for being murdered by revolutionaries—further signals that Citra has no intention of being a conventional scythe while also symbolizing her dedication to ethical scything. Citra’s primary desire as a scythe is to affect real change in the world, a radical notion of its own in a society that has become so complacent. As a newly minted scythe, Citra’s behavior consistently establishes that she is capable and highly independent, with her own strict code of honor.
Rowan’s actions at the Conclave signal his own blunt honesty and independence, as well as foreshadow his decision to ultimately become a vigilante. During the final Conclave, Rowan shocks onlookers by wearing black, the only taboo color for scythe robes as it is considered too grim. However, Rowan’s decision to embrace black suggests he is being honest and clear-eyed about the work scythes do. While other scythes may think they are bringing lightness into the world with their colorful robes, Rowan’s adoption of traditional mourning colors suggests his willingness to acknowledge the moral weight of gleaning and the reality of death. Public opinion largely turns against Rowan in the Conclave, as the other scythes’ fear of him is palpable, but this social exclusion only mirrors what Rowan has already experienced at school and at home. Rowan is used to being alone and is comfortable with it. He has always carved out his own path and stands out with his forthrightness in identifying gleaning for what it really is. This attitude motivates his resolve not to glean Citra, even if he wins the apprenticeship contest, and foreshadows his eventual role as a lone wolf who polices Scythedom on his own terms.
The ending of the novel sets up the premise for a sequel and, in the process, underscores how flawed Scythedom remains, even after Goddard’s death. Though Citra’s ordination as a scythe and Rowan’s escape could constitute a happy ending of sorts, killing Goddard has not rid the world of all problematic scythes. The committee that tests Citra vividly demonstrates the sharply varying standards of professional scythes. Despite the profession’s ostensible devotion to taking its work seriously, multiple scythes on Citra’s committee are flippant about her understandable objections to killing her brother and dismiss her acts of compassion as a waste of time. These committee members are not unusual exceptions, which is evident when Citra also hears scythes callously joke about the Tonist monastery massacre. Despite the high-minded ideals of the profession, many scythes are insensitive and indifferent, having succumbed to the same apathy toward death that Faraday warned is incompatible with ethical scything. Goddard is the book’s primary antagonist, but he is a symptom of the larger problem in their world, not the sole cause of it. The ending finds Citra and Rowan on opposite sides of scything reform, with her wanting to operate within the system and him operating outside of it.
