Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Scythe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age
Mortality and Life
Surveillance, Corruption, and Justice
Morality, Compassion, and Choices
Summary
Analysis
Citra can hear someone talking to her and realizes that it's the Thunderhead. When she points out that they can't communicate, the Thunderhead says that Citra is dead and while she's dead, they can speak. It says that though it's separate from the Scythedom, it's still watching and it's very concerned. It explains that it's been running algorithms and sees that in most possible futures, Citra is important. The Thunderhead refuses to tell Citra how to make a pleasant future, but says it can "make her aware." Citra moans that this isn't fair and asks the Thunderhead to tell her what happened to Faraday. It refuses but says it can give her one clue: the name Gerald Van Der Gans.
While it makes sense that the Thunderhead is smart and cunning, it's important to pay attention to the way that it bends the rules in order to pass this information on to Citra. This indicates that, as Curie suspected, the Thunderhead does care for the humans it watches out for and does see that the Scythedom could become a problem if things continue unchecked. There is, Citra realizes, more surveillance happening than she thought.
Themes
