Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Surprise Homecomings

In his novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Fountain introduces the readers to a group of men who have been serving in the army. When the novel starts they are in a limo on their way to a Thanksgiving football game where they are being honored. From this moment on the narrative jumps back and forth from the day of the football game to Billy’s memories. It becomes apparent to the readers that there was some sort of incident while they were in Afghanistan that was recorded on video which is now percolating through American media. The video depicts the men as heroic, although the details of what happened are not revealed to the readers. There was one American death in the incident. The funeral had been held the day before the football game. The surviving men joke around and tease each other, but when the author moves into Billy’s thoughts the readers can see that he, and probably the rest of the men are hurting deeply. He says he thinks about his fallen friend “every 10 seconds.” They are on a “victory tour” meaning they are doing all sorts of press stops all over America. They have talked to hundreds of Americans who all tell them how brave they are and how proud they must be. Fountain makes it clear to the readers that Billy does not like this attention.  He is young, overwhelmed, and lonely. Many soldiers feel this way when they return home. It is a symptom of PTSD and also simply of being at war. This idea is discussed in this article:

https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-05-13/ptsd-isnt-about-what-happens-battlefield-what-happens-back-home

Throughout the reading I wanted to know exactly what had happened in the incident. Although this has not been revealed to us yet here is some footage of a firefight in Afghanistan. This can give us as readers a little more insight into what combat is like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06iAZeZuCUc

We have discussed in class how the pentagon has been paying NFL teams to promote the military at their games. We have not discussed how this makes the men and women being honored feel which this novel gives us a change to do. The whole premise of the novel is one of these promotions. Here is an article about the pentagon paying teams.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25181085/nfl-teams-received-54-million-from-defense-department-in-last-4-years

 

 

In her article “Surprise Homecomings and Vicarious Sacrifices” Silvestri discusses the genre of YouTube videos that show military personnel surprising their loved ones who don’t know they have come home. Silvestri dives deep into these videos studying all aspects of their existence. She also looks at how citizens view these videos and other behaviors around them.  She argues that, “The surprise homecoming videos offer a civic model of how to think, feel, and behave” regarding the war. She discusses how, because of the way the war started, with President Bush giving justifications that turned out to be false, Americans don’t know how to feel about the war. Silvestri is saying that these videos give Americans an emotion to feel, and give them an outlet to feel more connected to the war. She references this particular video which now has over 6 million views:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygt9Wizh9mo

Here is a compilation video of more scenes like the one in the above video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnEnhmrOHwk

Here is another one but with dogs instead of humans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKBcs9tNWg8

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