Scythe Warrior Archetypes

“The power over life and death are in tongue and we eat the fruit of them.” Proverbs 18:21. In the novel Scythe, Rowan and Citra learn the power of life and death through their experiences as scythe apprentices and their mentors, Scythe Faraday, Scythe Goddard, and Scythe Curie. Scythe Faraday characterizes the sage archetype in this novel. He gives Citra and Rowan the knowledge and skills required to become a scythe, teaching them not only the physical elements of being a scythe, but the mental and emotional portions as well. Scythe Goddard characterizes the warrior archetype, as he is so confident in his abilities, that in all reality it is not confidence, but arrogance. His skill level for combat is a great deal, and he teaches Rowan these

Scythe Goddard taught Rowan his philosophy on gleaning, his newer way of thinking, and his savage ways of gleaning hundreds of people. He even did so with the Tonists, claiming that the group of scythes had a goal to “glean them all” (Shusterman 382). Also, later on in Rowan’s training, Scythe Goddard had him use live people to practice gleaning. He focused on speed and agility, telling Rowan to “dispatch [his] subjects with speed” (Shusterman 248). Scythe Goddard let his arrogance and a heavy hand with gleaning rule his morality, and he used that mindset to draw in and retain his cronies, which are all of his junior scythes. He had this “new order” mentality that caused Rowan to resent him, all the way up until Rowan burned them alive during their gleaning of an entire Tonist

It is shown in the care she gives to the remaining relatives of those she gleans, as well as to Citra later on in the novel. Citra sees Scythe Curie’s empathy and kindness first-hand after one of her first times seeing Scythe Curie glean, when Scythe Curie extended the offer of a home-cooked dinner to the family of someone she gleaned that day. Scythe Curie asked questions to the late man’s family, how he acted, and what he was like. She did this as a kindness, as a way to get to know the man she gleaned. Scythe Curie had a penchant for honesty and expected Citra to be truthful to others and herself. During the first test for apprentices, Scythe Curie knew Citra was lying about the story of pushing a girl she knew down the stairs. Months later, when Citra told her the truth, and it was revealed she actually pushed her in front of a moving car, she made Citra find the girl she “killed” and admit what she did to the girl all those years ago. Scythe Curie also offered a helping hand to Citra later on in the book, when Citra was accused of murdering Scythe Faraday. Scythe Curie got Citra to safety and ultimately cleared Citra’s name after some time. Scythe Curie took care of Citra, and so many others, and had this wise, all-knowing aura about her. This made her a consistent and reliable person throughout the