Amsterdam

“You know, I should have married her. When she started to go under, I would have killed her with a pillow or something and saved her from everyone’s pity.”

At Molly’s funeral, Clive offers this remark to Vernon. The statement serves as an early introduction to the euthanasia motif, framing it as a romanticized, if brutal, act of mercy. Clive uses hyperbole when he claims he would have personally smothered Molly, and this reveals his character: He sees himself as capable of a grand, decisive action, and this is a self-perception that will be tested later in the novel when he fails to protect a woman from a man who assaults her. This initial, casual suggestion of euthanasia contrasts sharply with the calculated, vengeful form it ultimately takes.

“How prosperous, how influential, how they had flourished under a government they had despised for almost seventeen years. Talking ’bout my generation. Such energy, such luck.”

Observing the mourners at Molly’s funeral, Clive reflects on his cohort’s success. The narrative voice employs irony, juxtaposing the generation’s counter-cultural self-image with their actual accumulation of wealth and influence within the establishment. The italicized line—“Talking ’bout my generation”—is a lyric from the 1965 song “My Generation” by The Who, which is an anthem of youthful rebellion. By invoking it in this context, McEwan underscores the dissonance between the ideals of the Baby Boomer generation and their eventual assimilation into the structures of power they once opposed.