response to Nov 28th
How will we ever be able to repay our troops? That is a question that stands out to me as I finished, "Long Halftime Walk", by Ben Fountain. Bravo Company is being rewarded for their outstanding service over in Iraq and they are rewarded by being put on a political stunt to maintain support for the war. These men are war heroes and all they are rewarded by is with seeing Destiny's Child and a few days off work? I think it is incredible of how we as Americans support our troops. The book talks about how people say they will always support the troops but when it comes to possibly losing a few dollars their mindset totally changes. I also thought it was interesting how everyone in the book tried to relate with Bravo Company at some way whether it being I thought about serving but never did, my grandpa served in the war and told me stories, or the football players calling Billy stupid for telling them to join the army. It is amazing how we as Americans talk the talk but only a very limited few walk the walk.
We as Americans need to try to do more to help and support our troops who are in these oversea conflicts because of what they do to keep America the land of the free. These men and women risk their lives for strangers and most Americans do not even thank them for their service. I think the most thought provoking question is, do Americans really support their troops? That is a question that cannot be answered in just sentences, but hopefully we as Americans can attempt to glorify our soldiers as they rightfully should.
From Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
ReplyDelete“They remind Billy of certain kids he went to high school with, the sons of and daughters of the small-town country club elite who were firmly embedded in the college track, and now here they are in their mid twenties, duly credentialed and married, starting out their grown-up lives on schedule…’You’re just a kid!’” (289)
This quote from the near end of the novel specifically interested me as I had never really thought about the alienation an active duty soldier feels from not only American culture as a whole, but also people their own age. After all, Billy was only nineteen and he had seen more violence and destruction than most people at the football game could even fathom. He didn’t have the privilege of attending college or starting his own life, instead he was taken fresh from high school graduation and groomed to reject individuality and to learn how to bury the horrors he witnessed. The description of the couple as well as the other fans at the football game throughout the book seems so detached, almost as if Billy is an outsider looking in. It must feel like culture shock when Billy or any other active duty service member comes home after a long deployment. To go from all night fire watching, constantly looking over your shoulder to stay alert, and witnessing the absolute worst of humanity, then being expected to seamlessly assimilate back into civilian life is unimaginable. The deep-rooted disconnect between Billy and the spectators at the game reminded me of an image in our notes from October 1st in which a small circle representing the veterans is surrounded by a larger circle that symbolizes the rest of society. It is incredibly disheartening to think that someone who sacrifices both their happiness and personal safety everyday for Americans could not possibly feels more differently and unrelated to them. Ben Fountain’s novel seems to provide an insight into the complicated psyche of a soldier unlike I have read or seen before (for being written by an civilian). I think Fountain does as good as a job as he can in conveying the isolation soldiers feel when they come home.
“He looks to his right and sees more Bravos similarly positioned, and at this instant he wishes he was back at the war. At least there he basically knew what he was doing, he had his training for guidance and the entire goddamn country wasn’t watching to see if he’d fuck up, but this, this is all wing-and-a-prayer shit” (Fountain, 238).
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, there is a disconnection between the American population and Bravo as they are paraded during the Cowboy’s halftime show. As part of their Victory Tour, they go to the Dallas Cowboy’s Thanksgiving football game and are presented in front of the stadium during the halftime show with Destiny’s Child. The descriptions of the people and interactions that Billy meets while at the stadium show a disconnect between the people who are fighting the war and the civilians at home. Most of the interactions are with people who thank Bravo for their sacrifices, claiming that they are supporting the troops. However, most of these words are meaningless to Bravo because when the civilians are tasked with supporting the troops by actions, whether it means the football players signing up to fight the war or Bravo getting paid a decent amount of money for the rights of their story, they scoff in the faces of the soldiers. In response to Norm snickering at Dime’s offer to get paid $100,000 up-front to make the movie and instead only offering $5,500, Dime rages, “Everybody supports the troops... support the troops, support the troops, hell yeah we’re so fucking PROUD of our troops, but when it comes to actual money? Like somebody might have to come out of pocket for the troops? Then all the sudden we’re on everybody’s tight-ass budget. Talk is cheap, I got that, but gimme a break. Talk is cheap but money screams, this is our country, guys. And I fear for it” (Fountain, 282). Bravo witnesses the materialistic society that the civilians are so engrained it that they almost feel detached from their home country. Multiple times Billy mentions and is told that he seems older than 19. After returning from the war, his experiences have aged him and made him and the rest of Bravo to witness the indulgent society that are blinded by what Bravo sees; the harsh reality of the soldier. The indulgent society is again on display when they are placed in the middle of the Halftime Show with a debauch of fireworks, dancing, and parading, making Billy and the rest of Bravo out of place. In returning home to their Victory Tour, Bravo feels disconnected from the indulgent, materialistic society in which they lived that do not understand their situation. Due to this disconnect, some of the Bravos express themselves as not belonging and wanting to go back to Iraq.
Throughout Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk there are several instances of disconnect between the Bravo Squad and civilians. This is shown not only when observing the interactions between these soldiers and civilians when it is clear that Billy views most of these questions as ignorant as to what they are discussing. But also when we see how the handlers of the Bravo Squad use them as spectacles throughout the evening and particularly during the halftime show. A question that was posed during our last class is useful when dissecting this portion of the book to discuss this disconnect and this scene in particular; are these soldiers being used as consumer products?
ReplyDeleteFrom my reading of the novel I would argue that they are being used as a consumer product. The two most clear scenes to illustrate this argument would be during the halftime show and when they are shooting the advertisement. During these scenes the Bravos are being used purely so that the producers can check of a box that they appease their patriotic audiences. In neither of these scenes do any of the soldiers have any real interaction through the media, they are instead given scripts or told to just stand there. Whenever the soldiers do attempt to interact with this media on their own terms, such as how Dime did during the filming of the advertisement on pages 167-168, they are immediately shut down. This shows that the Bravo Squad is being used by these producers purely for their image.
“No, Day, I do got to be here. I gotta be wherever the Army says I gotta be, and right now it’s here” (pg. 209).
ReplyDeleteThough this quote in particular was merely banter between the men as they sat with each other to watch the game, a certain sad truth rings within it that permeates throughout the rest of the book. These soldiers feel as though the army controls them, and in certain ways this is a valid articulation. The military as an institution prides itself on its ability to churn out hyper-masculine, dominant war machines, and yet time and time again it almost paradoxically forces soldiers into positions where they have to submit themselves, whether that be to multiple deployments or publicized events. Public displays of detached gratitude do little for the soldiers they are supposedly intended to uplift; in fact, they instead commodify these men and women, shaping them into tools that the American public and government can then use to justify a militaristic patriotism. Billy and the other Bravos understand that their presence is being made into a spectacle - that they themselves are being made into a spectacle, just as much as the rest of the “entertainment” on the field, if not more so. To be glamorized and consumed by people who do not and cannot understand the horrors of warfare and deployment is something Billy especially struggles in dealing with, as evidenced by the sections in which he’s only tuned into particular trigger words. That disconnect between military and nonmilitary personnel is both consistent and isolating.
Throughout the entire novel Billy seems to struggle with the idea of what he is fighting for. The idea of American consumerism is central to the novel and central to American society. There are numerous parts where Billy focuses on the redundancy of everyday American life such as all the buffets he went to and the gift shop at the stadium. Billy focuses on the excess of American culture Throughout the tour of the supply room for the Cowboys team he is shocked by the sheer amount of things. Things that allow the team to function. When Bravo team goes to retrieve signatures from the Cowboys team it is only Billy and Dime that don't care about signatures, that don't care about materialistic things like that. Billy upon leaving the locker room gives his autographed to the first deserving kid he finds. In his eyes the deserving kid was not a rich kid. Billy purposely sought out a kid that did not have anything, a kid that did not embody the ideals of American consumerism like everyone else that he met and interacted with at the stadium. When Billy spoke to Dimes about how he felt sick about all of the excess Dimes responded, "It's just another normal day in America." (242) Upon hearing this Billy is crushed because he realizes that is what he is fighting for, excess in America.
ReplyDeleteThere is a point in the book where some of the players approach Billy and say they want “to help” for a few weeks of the way.. Earlier in that same chapter Billy describes how the players could be a “new species.” Their bodies are over sized and strong, claiming that only a place such as America could produce such giants. This brings up the question we have discussed often in class of who really serves. The players would physically serve as great warriors, but when Billy suggests enlisting, the players cast “pitying glances,” saying how they already “got jobs” (187). This is important in the way that enlistment is overall viewed as a “job,” rather than “service.” The players would do it for a couple weeks, but would never make the commitment people like Billy has because they have better situations available. Later on when Billy is giving away a signed baseball to a kid, he looks for one that doesn’t look “tanned, smooth skinned, with long clean limbs and a good face,” but a kid that is “a redneck, an undergrown runt, and twitchy” (189). These situations make clear that Billy sees himself and the army similarly to how Anthony Swofford does. To grunts like them, the military is for the unwanted excess of society; it is for people with no chance of getting anything better.
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