Scythe
Essential Question: How do we approach life when we know that death is near?
Title:
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Text Access / Location:
Scythe Booktalk with Neal Shusterman
Text Complexity:
At grade level
Standard:
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Annotation:
In the future, a benevolent artificial intelligence, the Thunderhead, has solved most of our problems--including death! The Thunderhead is so good at its job that a new problem has come about: since we are immortal, we now have to deal with problems around overpopulation. The solution? Grant a few people within the society with the authority to glean--to kill, permanently, some of the population. This story follows two Scythe Apprentices as they become initiated into this peculiar occupation.
Potential Use:
Most of our texts deal directly with the essential question. This text asks us to think about the opposite. How do we approach life when death is a very remote possibility? How do we approach life when death is statistically unlikely?
Students can read this text and use the attitudes toward death as a contrast to our current understanding of the nature of death.