How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph) or (Part.Paragraph)
Quote #4
He was the only man on earth and his purpose was clear. He was walking across the land until he came to the sea. The reality was all too social, he knew; other men were pursuing him, but he had comfort in a pretense, and a rhythm at least for his feet. (2.130)
Here it's Robbie who is erasing other people from his consciousness—not in order to kill them, but in order to try to save his own life.
Quote #5
In a field ahead, he saw a man and his collie dog walking behind a horsedrawn plow. Like the ladies in the shoe shop, the farmer did not seem aware of the convoy. These lives were lived in parallel—war was a hobby for the enthusiasts and no less serious for that […] Yes, the plowing would still go on and there'd be a crop, someone to reap it and mill it, others to eat it, and not everyone would be dead… (2.219)
Again, there's the sense that war isn't real—or maybe that it's too real to fit into people's everyday stories. It feels like it's everything, but it's just a distraction. Unless, of course, it finishes you off.
Quote #6
"Nice bouquet," Turner said when he had drunk deeply.
"Dead Frog." (2.239)
McEwan was known in his early books for his gruesome subject matter. There isn't as much of that sort of thing in Atonement, but this is definitely an example. "Frog" is a less than complimentary term for the French. Nettle is joking that the water Turner is drinking tastes like a dead Frenchman. He should have been a stand-up comic, that Nettle.