49 pages • 1 hour read
Scythe & Sparrow
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Quest for Home and Belonging
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes cursing and descriptions of physical abuse, addiction, and graphic violence.
Rose and Fionn’s fraught pasts complicate their understanding of what constitutes a true home. Rose has lived on the road ever since she joined Silveria Circus when she was a teenager, and although she loves the “rush of the cheering crowd” and “the speed and the risk” (10) of her performances, she sometimes feels that life with Silveria is “not enough” (10). Traveling from place to place prevents her from settling down and making roots. Because she has no siblings and does not speak to her parents, her friends and coworkers at Silveria constitute her only family. Because her entire world is limited to the transient lifestyle of the circus, Rose doesn’t know where she truly belongs in life. Although her circumstances contrast sharply with Fionn’s, he is similarly alone. Ever since leaving Boston, he has lived a socially alienated life in Hartford, Nebraska, deliberately separating himself from his family and friends and locking himself into a rigid routine in an attempt to suppress and deny the darker aspects of his past. He fills his time with shifts at the clinic and hospital, trips to the gym, and occasional outings to his crochet and boxing clubs, and his alienation makes him feel unmoored and ungrounded.
However, as Rose and Fionn fall in love, they begin to offer each other a new version of home and belonging. For years, they have tried to find comfort and security in different places. When they get to know each other, they realize that they can find an enduring sense of home in the arms of another person. For Fionn, this revelation occurs while Rose is staying with him in Hartford. Because he is “accustomed to being alone” (113), he is surprised by how attached he becomes to Rose’s presence. He learns that he can trust and rely on her, and she offers him a sense of security that he has never found in other settings or relationships. Likewise, Rose begins to see Fionn as her home, for he offers her a welcome sense of constancy that contrasts with the chaos of “traveling across the country” (114) without respite. Even when the two are apart, Fionn continues to communicate with Rose and make sacrifices to meet up with her. Whenever they are together, she feels safe and secure.
Rose and Fionn’s relationship transcends circumstantial and logistical barriers, and they both ultimately learn that they will always have a home in each other. They reunite after seven months apart at the novel’s end and discover that they belong together despite all that they have endured. No matter where they are living, they feel secure in each other’s love, and the novel’s conclusion suggests that no matter what conflicts they face, they feel seen and accepted by each other.
The Redemptive Power of Love
Rose and Fionn’s romantic relationship proves that love has redemptive powers. When Rose and Fionn meet, they are both uncertain of who they are and what they want, and they are also particularly burdened by their complicated pasts. Rose grew up with an abusive father and was forced to flee her home when she was a teenager; she has been self-reliant ever since. However, she uses her life on the road to run from her troubles and lingering trauma, but ultimately, she carries her unrest with her wherever she goes.
Notably, Fionn’s past is defined by similar traumas. Although years have passed since he killed his abusive father, Callum, to protect his brothers, Fionn is still haunted by his father’s “drunken and drug-induced rage” (98) and can remember the abuse that Callum heaped upon Fionn and his brothers. Fionn is also burdened by heartbreak over losing his ex-girlfriend, Claire, along with his hopes for “the life [he] had envisioned” (116) for himself. Because of these past experiences, both Rose and Fionn are unfamiliar with true love and care; they do not expect affection or empathy from others because they have learned to live life on their own and steel themselves against the risk of further pain.
As Rose and Fionn fall in love, they redeem each other from their trauma, sorrow, and regret. Throughout the novel, Fionn wishes that he could “be a different man” (156), but he fears that his past mistakes and acts of violence will prevent him from building a happy future with Rose, and he spends his effort trying to be a good, upright, and decent person in order to atone for his past violence. Ultimately, however, Rose’s kindness, grace, and courage compel Fionn to embrace a positive transformation. Because Rose “lives her life with a wide-open heart” (242), she helps Fionn to do the same, and their relationship ultimately becomes comprehensive. Indeed, it is “not just the sex” (242) that changes them; they also have deep, transformative conversations and make significant sacrifices for each other.
Because Scythe & Sparrow is a contemporary romance novel, Rose and Fionn’s love affair fuels the primary narrative arc, and the author devotes equal time to describing each protagonist’s inner transformation. True to the genre, the characters also attain the requisite “happily ever after” ending, and this narrative resolution reinforces the traditional idea that true love is capable of transcending all forms of adversity.
Achieving Self-Acceptance through Supportive Relationships
Rose’s and Fionn’s quests for home and love facilitate their journeys toward self-acceptance. While Rose actively accepts even the darkest aspects of her own personality, Fionn remains conflicted about his capacity for violence and struggles to redefine his identity in the present. His anguished memories of killing his father and working as a contract killer with his brothers shadow his current lifestyle. Outwardly, Fionn presents himself as a cool, collected clinic doctor and broadcasts an ascetic demeanor that others admire. Privately, however, Fionn constantly asks himself, “What the fuck am I doing?” (70). This “question seems inescapable” (70) to him because he has yet to reckon with his past, and he is reluctant to acknowledge and claim the more dichotomous facets of his character. When he left Boston and parted ways with his brothers and their violent profession, Fionn tried to convince himself that becoming a doctor and living in a rural area “could right the wrong[s] [he could] never take back” (70). His life in the present is thus defined by denial and avoidance. He isolates himself in his house in Hartford, largely avoiding social interactions and denying himself any new opportunities for real connection and change. These self-alienating habits convey his ongoing fear of confronting his true self.
However, Rose helps Fionn to acknowledge who he is and to love himself more fully. During one of the novel’s many intimate scenes of dialogue, Rose tells Fionn, “It’s okay to love your darkness and still love yourself. It doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you a whole one” (191). Rose’s insight grants Fionn a new perspective on his life and character. Instead of demonizing his mistakes or his dark side, he learns to accept and value his nuances. Once he learns to love himself, he is better able to love Rose as well.
By the conclusion of the novel, Rose and Fionn emerge as more complete, confident individuals. Their journey towards love and redemption helps them to value themselves and cherish one another. When they finally reunite in Ellsworth, Maine, they both acknowledge that “it was okay to take some time” (357) apart because their seven-month separation has allowed them to grow as individuals. In Fionn’s absence, Rose realizes that there is nothing wrong with changing her life for the person she loves, even if doing so means launching into the unknown. In Rose’s absence, Fionn realizes that he wants to be with her because she makes him a better person. In keeping with the conventional patterns of the genre, Fionn and Rose’s romance ultimately fuels their evolution and solidifies their respective identities.
Unlock every key theme and why it matters
Get in-depth breakdowns of the book’s main ideas and how they connect and evolve.
- Explore how themes develop throughout the text
- Connect themes to characters, events, and symbols
- Support essays and discussions with thematic evidence