Mortality and Death Quotes in The Bourne Identity

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

"I want him dead." Conklin's words, though spoken softly, had the effect of a sudden, cold wind.

"He not only broke all the rules we each set down for ourselves—no matter what—but he sunk into the pits. He reeks. He is Cain." (22.58)

This is an official of the U.S. government ordering a summary execution on an American citizen…and then burbling about breaking all the rules.

Quote #8

Men like Villiers robbed life from the young and the very young. They did not deserve to live. (24.107)

Bourne's anger at Villiers here is linked to the death of Bourne's wife and son (even though Bourne can't remember them). Villiers promotes war; Bourne's loved ones died in war. Therefore, Villiers should die. Death calls for and justifies more death.

Quote #9

"Death is a statistic for the computers. For you it is survival." (29.44)

Bourne is remembering something David Abbott told him while he was Delta, fighting in Vietnam. It holds good throughout the book, though: death is treated as a wholesale statistic as Bourne racks up kills—and the treatment of death as a statistic is justified or necessary because of the overriding imperative for survival. Peacetime espionage is treated as war—which might be an analogy for how the Cold War worked.