Abuse Of Power In Scythe By Neal Shushterman

The book Scythe by Neal Shushterman, is set in a dystopian world where there is no suffering and death is conquered. To keep the population under control, scythes are demanded to glean people. Citra and Rowan are chosen to become apprentices, knowing that the consequences of failure could mean losing their own life. They learn that power plays a huge role in a perfect world. This is shown how power led to the corruption and downfall of Scythe Goddard, how knowledge is powerful and the psychological abuse of how power can change someone. The book Scythe teaches readers that the abuse of extreme amounts of power can lead to a corrupted mindset, ultimately leading to the downfall of those in positions of authority.

Neal Shushterman’s story teaches

This is shown when Rowan was writing in his journal, feeling like Goddard is turning him into a monster. “Quote'' Rowan agrees with Scythe Faraday that you should “never lose your humanity, or you’d be nothing but a killing machine” (Shushterman, 000) and Rowan is afraid that he is becoming a killing machine. Rowans tore out the page of his journal entry and burnt it and wrote instead of how motivational Scythe Goddard was. He did this knowing that Goddard was monitoring his entries to prevent Rowan from practicing the teachings of Scythe Faraday. Rowan was starting to lose his empathy for others and gleaning with no compassion, like Scythe Goddard was teaching him. Another example of how power can negatively affect an individual’s mindset, was when Scythe Goddard manipulated the HighBlade Xenocrates. Goddard kidnapped the HighBlade’s illegal daughter and blackmails Xenocrates into trying to get rid of Citra and making sure Rowan is the one to become a scythe. Scythe Goddard knew that “if anyone knew she existed” (Shushterman, 000), the HighBlade would face many punishments and be stripped of his position, and used that information to his advantage. Scythe Goddard had a sense of entitlement and knew he could get or do whatever he wanted by manipulating others with his power. He believed that it was “the job of the gardener to shape the tree as much as possible” and if “branches that begin to reach unreasonably

Knowledge tends to be a good thing and mostly positively used, but sometimes it can be used negatively. This is shown through Rowan and Citra when they used the backbrain of the Thunderhead to fulfill their tasks and dig for information. When Citra was digging for information about Scythe Faraday’s murder, she used this knowledge to warn Rowan and told Scythe Curie so they could potentially put an end to Scythe Goddard. This is the positive cause of using knowledge. Knowledge can also be used negatively. For instance, after Rowan killed Scythe Goddard and his junior scythes at the tonist monastery, he went on to become the illegitimate Scythe Lucifer, who was known to kill scythes that enjoyed killing innocent people. He used information to find these scythes who enjoyed gleaning to kill them. He thought this was the way to change the course of how the Scythedom was going and teach Scythes to glean compassionately. However, he used his knowledge and skill for negative and became a criminal, being hunted by the Scythedom. These negative actions had consequences because Rowan chose to use his knowledgeable power to control who he gleaned and why he gleaned those people, for the wrong