Arc Of A Scythe Sparknotes

Ali Baba

ELA 306-08

Tuesday, December 16th, 2022

The Arc of a Scythe

In the book “Arc of a scythe” Bby Neal Shusterman. The scythedom pressures an Iinescapable rivalry upon the two main characters, Rowan and Citra, by allowing only one of them to be ordained as a scythe., tThere Iis no doubt that Citra should come out on top and be ordained as one of the scythes. Although easily angered, Citra Iis an overall caring character as shown in the book by her actions. Rowan, who was at first shown as a symbol of righteousness, grows later into the story to be someone who feels nothing to from murder or gleaning. Citra remained under the apprenticeship of Honourable Scythe Curie and Faraday, who are only looking for the benefit of the world,

This can be seen in the dialogue between Citra and her father when Citra requests her family's opinion on whether she should train to become a scythe under scythe Faraday: hHer father shook his head, saying,. “It’s not about our Iimmunity.” with Shusterman going on to write that Citra “And she realized he was telling the truth; it was not about them but about her little brother Ben” (Shusterman 33). Citra knew she did not want to become an apprentice scythe; however, she chose her family's Iimmunity over her own desires. “Could she possibly find greater purpose in the gleaning of human life? The answer was still resolute “NO!” (Shusterman 33). The characteristic of choosing others Iis one that Iis critical in a scythe and something that Iis clearly present Iin Citra. Scythes sacrifice their humanity as well as the possibility of a comfortable life to fulfill the needs of the world, naturally making Citra a perfect

Goddard trains Rowan under his selfish Iideals, Iideals that a good scythe cannot abide. by iHis teachings should be put in contrast to Honorable Scythe Faraday’s teachings, which taught the two apprentice scythes that Iindividuals practicing gleaning the must not ever enjoy killing. Quite early in the book, Honorable Scythe Faraday says, “those to wish to have the job should not have Iit… and those who refuse to kill are the only ones who should” (Shusterman 42). As time passes under Goddard the readers see Rowan’s constant mental battle with gleaning as well as his gradual enjoyment of Iit. Shusterman showed this in writing that “Rowan wanted to despise all of this, but there was something about honing one's skill, no matter that skill, that was rewarding. What he hated was the fact that he did not hate iIt” (Shusterman 170.). Rowan watches himself as he slowly begins to lose his humanity as be becomes anesthetized to gleaning, he even feels a sense of reward from Iit. Something Faraday so strongly Insisted against, this fact alone Is more than enough to prove that Rowan Is not built to serve the scythedom therefore he Is better off doing what he is doing killing off shitty scythes. He was Initially picked up by scythe Faraday because of the compassion he displayed in the beginning of the book when he tried to save his classmate Kohl Whitlock from his unavoidable gleaning.