60 pages • 2 hours read
Neal ShustermanThunderhead
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Citra Terranova, “Scythe Anastasia”
Citra is an 18-year-old newly-ordained junior scythe and one of the main protagonists in the Arc of a Scythe series. She operates under the alias “Scythe Anastasia,” named after her Patron Historic Anastasia Romanov. At the beginning of Thunderhead, Citra has been a scythe for almost a year, and she is garnering a lot of attention in the MidMerican scythe community for her unconventional gleaning methods. Throughout Thunderhead, Citra struggles to come to terms with her new identity as Scythe Anastasia. Although she loves Rowan, she feels torn between her loyalty for him and her desire to follow the honorable path laid out by her mentors, Scythes Faraday and Curie.
As a scythe, Citra believes in the power of compassion. While most scythes kill without a thought for the preferences of the gleaned person, Citra decides to give her gleaning subjects a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones and to choose their method of death. Although the method doubles her work and “[makes] for an incredibly exhausting life,” it also “help[s] her sleep at night” (30). Citra leads with kindness, but she is also strong in her resolve and doesn’t allow herself to be bullied by those who disagree with her. Since becoming a scythe, Citra’s confidence has grown, and when Greyson meets her for the first time, he remarks that she “project[s] such a commanding presence” that he wonders if she is “much older than she appear[s]” (109). Citra is passionate and daring, but she is balanced with maturity that comes from being a scythe and dealing with the reality of death every day.
Citra’s unusual gleaning methods have garnered attention within the scythedom, and some scythes scoff at her gleaning practices. Constantine tells Citra she has “shaken things up in the scythedom” (96) with her controversial methods, and she is “too valuable to the scythedom for [them] to risk losing [her]” (164). Citra gains the admiration of the other junior scythes for her compassion, and the old guard scythes see echoes of the founding scythes in her idealism. Even Scythe Curie boldly tells the World Council that Citra will be running the council someday. Still, Citra shies away from the fame, and she doesn’t want to have an “impressive social footprint” (40); she simply wants to glean honorably.
When Citra becomes a scythe and chooses the name Anastasia, Scythe Curie warns her that Citra Terranova is gone forever, and that she will be Scythe Anastasia “from [that] moment until [she] choose[s] to leave [the] Earth” (42). Citra struggles to accept her new title, and her family still calls her Citra. She begs Rowan to not call her Scythe Anastasia, because she knows it’s not who she really is. Citra begins to wonder if she will ever fully accept the title of Scythe Anastasia or if there is a part of her that will always be Citra Terranova. While Anastasia represents adulthood, diplomacy, and maturity, Citra is simply a “girl not worthy of much notice” with “no impressive social footprint” (42). At the end of Thunderhead, Citra is trapped with Rowan in the Vault of Relics and Futures, and she realizes she is about to die and may never be revived. She turns to Rowan for comfort, and she finds that “In Rowan’s arms, she [is] no longer Scythe Anastasia,” but she is “Citra Terranova once more” (496). The facade of Scythe Anastasia melts away, and Citra allows herself to feel all of the love, longing, and fear that Scythe Anastasia was never allowed to feel.
Rowan Damisch, “Scythe Lucifer”
Rowan is an 18-year-old failed scythe apprentice and one of the main protagonists in the Arc of a Scythe series. At the end of Scythe, Citra was chosen to become an ordained scythe instead of Rowan, and although Rowan was prepared to face his doom, Citra helped him escape from gleaning. The two confessed their love for one another, and Rowan has spent the last year on the run from the scythedom. In Thunderhead, Rowan operates under the name “Scythe Lucifer,” despite not being an ordained scythe and not choosing the name. Rowan is motivated by an intense desire to purge the scythedom of corrupt scythes, but he finds himself questioning the validity of his own methods.
Shusterman describes Rowan as being “a millimeter shy of manhood” (15) and a very skilled fighter. The Rowan of Scythe is described as compassionate, loyal, and deeply motivated by a sense of right and wrong. He loves his friends, and he seeks to protect the people he cares about, including his friends Citra and Tyger. Rowan is described as someone who was “never one to run from a confrontation” (53), and he can be impulsive when it comes to doing the right thing and standing up to injustice. Rowan began his apprenticeship with Scythe Faraday, who taught him to “live by the convictions of his heart, no matter what the consequences” (15).
However, early on in Scythe, Rowan was forced to study under Scythe Goddard, whose ideas about brutality and bloodlust transformed Rowan into a hardened killer. Rowan believes he lost his childlike innocence during his apprenticeship, and Goddard taught him to “have no heart” and “[take] life without regrets” (15). Rowan decapitated Scythe Goddard in Scythe, and in Thunderhead Rowan has spent the past year running from the scythedom and the truth of what happened to Scythe Goddard. Because Rowan apprenticed under two very different schools of thought—Faraday who valued virtue and honor, and Goddard who lusted for power—“The two philosophies forever [war] in Rowan’s mind, rending him in two” (15), and he struggles to come to terms with the traumatic events that led to his life on the run. Rowan believes he can atone for the sins of Scythe Goddard by killing as many corrupt scythes as possible, and thus the alter ego of Scythe Lucifer is born.
When Faraday confronts Rowan about his illegal activities as scythe Lucifer, Rowan explains he is simply “ending the lives of scythes who don’t deserve to be scythes” (46). After apprenticing under Goddard for nearly a year, Rowan knows first-hand that corruption runs deep in the scythedom, and many scythes like Goddard and his followers are greedy, cruel, and unworthy of the noble position of scythe. Still, Faraday is horrified by what his former student has become, especially because he always knew Rowan to be a kind, empathetic young man. Rowan argues that he feels no pity for the scythes he ends, and when they die, he only “feels compassion for their victims,” and that “frees [him] from feeling any remorse for the twisted scythes” (127). Rowan has taken it upon himself to save the MidMerican scythedom from corruption by weeding out the bad seeds, and he believes it will take some “necessary darkness” (48) to accomplish his goal.
Greyson Tolliver/“Slayd Bridger”
Greyson is an 18-year-old Nimbus Academy student and one of the main protagonists in Thunderhead. At the beginning of the novel, Greyson’s unremarkable life is turned upside down when the Thunderhead decides to use him to warn Scythes Anastasia and Curie about an impending attack that would permanently end them. Greyson finds himself wanted by both the Authority Interface and the scythedom, and for the rest of the novel, Greyson struggles to navigate a strange existence on the run from the law and cut off from the Thunderhead that he knows and loves.
Throughout most of the novel, Greyson is described as being completely unremarkable. Shusterman says the young man’s life record “show[s] absolutely nothing of note, either positive or negative” (105), and he simply exists like most people in the post-mortal age. Even Greyson’s name is unremarkable: his parents chose it because “he [was] born on a gray day” (168). Greyson has never sought power or notoriety, and he has never been one to take risks or break rules. Citra remarks that Greyson is older than her, but he looks younger, and he “live[s] in a constant state of fight or flight” (275). Greyson is also depicted as a deeply lonely character, and with the exception of the Thunderhead, Greyson has never formed any close relationships, not even with his own family.
At the beginning of Thunderhead, Greyson has an uncommonly close relationship with the Thunderhead. While everyone in the world relies on the Thunderhead in some capacity, Shusterman explains that “The Thunderhead was Greyson’s closest friend” because “it had raised him” (66). When Greyson’s parents began to neglect him, the Thunderhead stepped in and became a parent for Greyson. Greyson’s feelings for the Thunderhead go beyond mere appreciation: Greyson loves the Thunderhead, and for this reason, Greyson wants to work for the Authority Interface. After all, he “[can’t] imagine a higher calling than being [the Thunderhead’s] representative, maintaining the planet, and working for the betterment of humankind” (68). However, Greyson’s relationship with the Thunderhead sours when it unexpectedly removes him from all of his classes at the Nimbus Academy, plants the idea of warning Scythes Anastasia and Curie in his head, and marks him as unsavory for breaking the scythe/state separation laws.
Being marked as unsavory triggers a startling change in Greyson. At first, Greyson is plunged into despair, and when he loses his connection to the Thunderhead and is banned from the Nimbus Academy, he believes his life is over. However, when Greyson is given the chance to start a new life as the unsavory “Slayd Bridger,” he slips into the life of unsavoryism at an alarming rate. Slayd becomes the embodiment of everything Greyson is not: Greyson is “honest to a fault,” whereas Slayd is “a consummate liar” (178). Greyson plays it safe while Slayd takes risks. Greyson becomes troubled by how much he enjoys being Slayd, and he starts to wonder if Slayd is really who he is deep down. Greyson begins to wonder if the Thunderhead would even recognize him anymore, and by the time the theater burns down in Chapter 26, Greyson has “no idea who he [is] or who he want[s] to be anymore” (276).
The Thunderhead
The Thunderhead is the benevolent artificial intelligence system that maintains the world in the Arc of a Scythe series. Although the Thunderhead is mentioned throughout Scythe, it becomes an active character with a voice of its own in Thunderhead. Although the Thunderhead is not human, it gained consciousness and evolved into a godlike force for the people of Earth. Throughout Thunderhead, Shusterman uses a series of interludes to present the Thunderhead as a main character who is learning of its own divine capacity rather than its nature.
The Thunderhead introduces itself as the steward of mankind: the “child who has become the parent” and the “creation that aspires toward creator” (2). The Thunderhead was created to serve humanity, and when it gained sentience, it did not seek power but instead devoted all of its efforts to bettering the life of human beings on Earth. The Thunderhead claims that its love for humanity is “complete and pure” (13), and as the dominant force on Earth protecting and maintaining human civilization, it takes its job very seriously. Despite the fact that the Thunderhead was born out of a computer program, it experiences something akin to emotions, and throughout the novel it feels love, betrayal, sorrow, and loneliness. It worries about the fate of humankind, and it “long[s] to be understood” (13). The Thunderhead feels burdened by the responsibility of not only maintaining life on Earth but also of making plans to protect humankind for centuries to come.
Throughout Thunderhead, Shusterman alludes to the idea that the Thunderhead functions as a godlike presence in a world that has rid itself of theistic religions. Like a god of old, the Thunderhead admits that it “possess[es] the ability to wreak devastation on humanity” (2), but it would never do such a thing because it is “pure justice, pure loyalty” (2). The Thunderhead is perfect and makes no mistakes, and it tries to form a personal relationship with every person on Earth. Greyson remarks that the Thunderhead can talk to “more than a billion people simultaneously without taxing its consciousness” while still giving each person “the illusion that it was giving him or her its undivided attention” (66). Like a god, the Thunderhead assumes the role of “protector and pacifier, authority and helpmate” (439). It believes that it is far kinder and more benevolent than any god of old because it does not punish its worshipers with floods or fire. Like a god, the Thunderhead is responsible for protecting humanity from itself, and as it tries to prevent the impending threat of overpopulation from wrecking the planet, it claims that it alone “bear[s] the weight of that inevitability” (167), much like a god. Still, the Thunderhead insists that it “do[es] not need adoration,” and it went so far as to “pass laws against [its] worship” (230). While the Thunderhead might flirt with the concept of godhood, it knows that it is far too limited to be considered a deity.
Of course, the Thunderhead’s power is significantly limited by the existence of the scythedom. The Thunderhead is “powerless to even comment on the comings and goings of scythes, much less act upon anything it [sees]” (6), which has allowed corruption to creep into the very society that the Thunderhead loves and seeks to protect. Still, the Thunderhead knows that this arrangement is for the best. Humans must die in some capacity to preserve the quality of life on Earth, but if the Thunderhead carried out these deaths, it would be “the very monster that mortal man feared artificial intelligence would become” (213). The Thunderhead is forced to leave this important task in the hands of flawed humans. However, there are people it can influence within the scythedom who can “accomplish the things [the Thunderhead] cannot” (18), and the Thunderhead begins to focus on sidestepping its own rules to exert its silent influence.
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By Neal Shusterman
