Genre
Young-adult fiction
Setting and Context
In the distant future, in a world without natural death
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person limited past tense, usually following Citra Terranova or Rowan Damisch. Each chapter is preceded by a first-person journal entry from a scythe's (or apprentice's) gleaning journal.
Tone and Mood
Though the tone of the novel is at times comedic, it is primarily serious, with a focus on ethical dilemmas. The mood is tense, as the protagonists learn more about the truth of the Scythedom.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Citra and Rowan are the protagonists, with antagonists including (at times) Scythe Goddard and his elegy, High Blade Xenocrates, and the Scythedom as a whole.
Major Conflict
Citra and Rowan become Scythe Faraday's apprentices, but the Scythedom decides that the winning apprentice will be required to glean the loser once they're confirmed as a scythe. After Scythe Faraday's apparent self-gleaning, Citra and Rowan are reassigned and trained by very different scythes, confronting violence and moral dilemmas, and their decisions alter the future of the Scythedom.
Climax
Citra is confirmed as an official scythe, and she helps Rowan escape rather than gleaning him.
Foreshadowing
Chomsky's obsession with using his flamethrower, even on a plane, foreshadows the violence committed with fire later in the novel.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
Scythe features numerous allusions, primarily to Western culture. Some of these are presented as part of the characters' culture (like Rowan wielding a mallet "like Thor's hammer"); others are presented as references that the characters don't completely remember, like H.S. Curie discussing Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner but not knowing their names.
Imagery
Visual imagery is used to communicate how the Scythedom wants to be perceived by the outside world, as each scythe chooses an individual color for their robes (except black). This rainbow is meant to show that scythes are multiple aspects of light, not darkness.
Paradox
Scythe Faraday describes the paradox of being a scythe: Those who want the job should not have it, and those who refuse to kill are the most qualified to do so.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
In chapter 10, Shusterman describes how Rowan and Tyger "shot hoops at a park," an instance of metonymy (hoops for basketball).
Personification
In chapter 7, crossbows are described as "frighteningly muscular."
