SUmmary
After the Scythedom tried to kill Rowan he took up the mantle of Scythe Lucifer. He made it his personal mission to kill all "unworthy" scythes by fire. Throughout his journey, he kills more and more scythes until he is chastised by his former mentor, Scythe Faraday. Citra's method of gleaning is introduced as well. Rather than gleaning on the spot, she gives those who will be gleaned one month to make peace with their life and then lets them choose how they would like to be gleaned. Later on Rowan finds out from his friend Tyger that his father has been gleaned and new it was a purposeful gleaning. Tyger was visiting Rowan because he was moving to the Texas region for job. When he gets there, the reader finds that Tyger's new "employer" is one of Rowan's old enemies.
Greyson Tolliver is introduced to the novel as a young man who has essentially been raised by the thunderhead. His parents paid zero attention and didn't care much at all for him. He always wanted to be a Nimbus agent and joined the training academy. While he was there, he was persuaded to save Scythe Anastasia and Scythe curie, interfering with scythe affairs and was then kicked out of the Nimbus Academy. He was marked as unsavory and denied the ability to converse with the thunderhead. Because of this, he took on a role to gather information and report it to his Nimbus Agent. He makes friends with some anarchists. He agrees to help them with a job that would kill Scythe Anastasia and Scythe Curie but warns the scythedom and intentionally foils it. His unsavory friends are all gleaned and he finds out that they had connections to scythes. Scythe Anastasia helps Greyson escape to a tonist cult where he hides out.
Meanwhile, Rowan recklessly attempts to kill the scythe who killed his father and is captured. When he wakes he finds that he is in Texas with Tyger. Tyger tells him about his training and Rowan finds out who it is who has been training Tyger. Rowan spars with Tyger everyday, helping his body get used to fighting. Rowan always won. One day someone was wheeled into Rowan's room who appeared to be Tyger but his head belonged to anther enemy who Rowan thought was long gone.
Winter Conclave came and the head scythe announced he was taking on a higher position of a Grand Slayer and his old position of High Blade of MidMerica was going to become available. Scythe Curie was nominated along with the newly returned scythe but after the votes had been cast, it was announced that the other candidate should be disqualified because only his head was a scythe and rest of him was a party boy. This challenge would be taken up by the Grandslayer Council on Endura.
During this whole time, Scythe Faraday had been looking for "the land of Nod" with the help of a new friend. They spent most their time searching the library that homed all scythe journals. They later went to the library of congress in MidMerica where they found an old map that had some islands on it that the Thunderhead was not aware of. The thunderhead saw the map and was pretty pissed that mankind had purposely hid part of the world from it.
Scythes Curie and Anastasia left for Endura along with the bad guys. The bad guys got in a disagreement leading to Rowans escape. The Grand Council sided with Scythe Curie so the bad guy started his plan to disrupt the island of Endura, and kill the Grand Slayers. Rowan tries to warn them but is too late. The psychologically
manipulated sharks devour anyone in the water including the grand slayers. Curie locked Citra and Rowan to a vault where they'd be sealed and could live again. She then inspired a group of scythes to honorably glean those around them and then themselves.
Greyson Tolliver is introduced to the novel as a young man who has essentially been raised by the thunderhead. His parents paid zero attention and didn't care much at all for him. He always wanted to be a Nimbus agent and joined the training academy. While he was there, he was persuaded to save Scythe Anastasia and Scythe curie, interfering with scythe affairs and was then kicked out of the Nimbus Academy. He was marked as unsavory and denied the ability to converse with the thunderhead. Because of this, he took on a role to gather information and report it to his Nimbus Agent. He makes friends with some anarchists. He agrees to help them with a job that would kill Scythe Anastasia and Scythe Curie but warns the scythedom and intentionally foils it. His unsavory friends are all gleaned and he finds out that they had connections to scythes. Scythe Anastasia helps Greyson escape to a tonist cult where he hides out.
Meanwhile, Rowan recklessly attempts to kill the scythe who killed his father and is captured. When he wakes he finds that he is in Texas with Tyger. Tyger tells him about his training and Rowan finds out who it is who has been training Tyger. Rowan spars with Tyger everyday, helping his body get used to fighting. Rowan always won. One day someone was wheeled into Rowan's room who appeared to be Tyger but his head belonged to anther enemy who Rowan thought was long gone.
Winter Conclave came and the head scythe announced he was taking on a higher position of a Grand Slayer and his old position of High Blade of MidMerica was going to become available. Scythe Curie was nominated along with the newly returned scythe but after the votes had been cast, it was announced that the other candidate should be disqualified because only his head was a scythe and rest of him was a party boy. This challenge would be taken up by the Grandslayer Council on Endura.
During this whole time, Scythe Faraday had been looking for "the land of Nod" with the help of a new friend. They spent most their time searching the library that homed all scythe journals. They later went to the library of congress in MidMerica where they found an old map that had some islands on it that the Thunderhead was not aware of. The thunderhead saw the map and was pretty pissed that mankind had purposely hid part of the world from it.
Scythes Curie and Anastasia left for Endura along with the bad guys. The bad guys got in a disagreement leading to Rowans escape. The Grand Council sided with Scythe Curie so the bad guy started his plan to disrupt the island of Endura, and kill the Grand Slayers. Rowan tries to warn them but is too late. The psychologically
manipulated sharks devour anyone in the water including the grand slayers. Curie locked Citra and Rowan to a vault where they'd be sealed and could live again. She then inspired a group of scythes to honorably glean those around them and then themselves.
impressionistic Quote
“‘Do you ever mourn what was lost?’ ‘On some days, yes, on others, no,’ Scythe Curie said. ‘Today I am determined to rejoice in what we’ve gained, rather than what we lost.”
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Scythe Curie and Scythe Anastasia are visiting what to them is an ancient ruin. They are visiting the remains of the gateway arch in St. Louis. It was destroyed in an act of terrorism in the age of mortality and the idea of it makes Scythe Anastasia sad.
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Too often we are caught up in what we’ve lost. It is so hard for us to focus on what we’ve gained or be grateful for what we once had. We rather tend to look at what we are missing out on.
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Death and Meaning
The meaning of life is a highly reflected subject. Some claim to have the answers while others claim there is no answer. Is life just here for us to live and lose? One could say that what we do with our lives is what matters and those we affect along the way. Whatever the reason and meaning is, none of it would matter without death. Some argue that death leaves life meaningless but I’d say that death cements the meaning of life. Death keeps one looking forward, promotes virtue and empathy, and allows yang to be comprehended as without death, one wouldn’t know yin. These observations are discussed throughout Neal Shusterman’s Novel, Thunderhead.
Life is full of all experiences that can leave us in diverse moods. Becoming motivated or in contrast, indolent are two common outcomes of what one experiences. If life had no endmark, or no threat of ending, idleness would be abundant as no one would have a need to be productive. The Thunderhead “made death irrelevant but not unnecessary. Death must exist for life to have meaning.” (18). This artificial intelligence realized that people experience life more when they can possibly experience death as well. The Thunderhead sees the large picture and the effects immortality has on the people it strives to serve.
People are human and therefore act and react in human ways. Empathy, kindness, understanding, envy, support, etc. are all different emotions and feelings we can have for each other. One could say that even these would not exist without death. When Greyson Tolliver was summoned to a Nimbus Academy office he interacted with a woman working there and for “a moment he wondered if she might actually be [a robot], but then remembered that the Thunderhead did not have robots in its offices. The AI was supposed to be the human interface to the Thunderhead, after all.” (118). These people live immortal lives and do the same thing day after day. Greyson observes firsthand the loss of human perceptions and sensations in this woman. Through immortality, a lack of human involvement, and a lack of real, meaningful, human interaction, she has lost touch with the ability to connect and empathize with other human beings.
Life would be wretched without death but no one would know it. The old Chinese mythology of yin & yang demonstrates this. Death is like yin; generally looked at as “bad” and dark while yang can be seen as all the positive things. They balance each other and can’t exist without each other. If one doesn’t exist, the other can’t be noticed. Without our bad experiences, we wouldn’t recognize the good ones. While Citra and Scythe Curie are visiting an “ancient” ruin, Citra and Scythe Curie converse, saying “‘Do you ever mourn what was lost?’ ‘On some days, yes, on others, no, [...] Today I am determined to rejoice in what we’ve gained, rather than what we lost.” (318). Curie knows that it is okay to think about the sad things and recognize them but she shows that she has the ability to simply recognize, move one, and look forward to the good and the good happening around her.
Paying for gasoline weekly isn’t the reason we drive our cars. It’s actually a part of maintaining and driving a car that no one looks forward to but without it, we would not be able to enjoy the great parts of owning and driving cars. That gas provides the ability to enjoy the car. It’s one’s own choice how they use the car and if they have a good experience but they’re going to be paying for gas regardless. Death is like that gas. We can find our own meaning in life or we can waste the time we have but death is going to be there so a normal and natural part of the human experience and is the only thing truly capable of showing people how meaningful their life actually is.