To Stay or Not to Stay? That Is Aloma's Question

Aloma's main conflict in C.E. Morgan's All the Living (besides dealing with Orren's callousness) is whether to stay with her husband on their Kentucky farm or to strive for independence elsewhere. While Aloma had a rough childhood and an unorthodox adolescence at a settlement school, she is initially inept to life on a farm...or at least that's how Orren sees it. So he takes it upon himself to do all the farm work while Aloma is stuck inside cooking and cleaning--and resenting him all the while. So why does she stay? I asked myself this question repeatedly while reading about Aloma's and Orren's aggressive fights and subsequent making-up. This does not seem like healthy behavior by any means, especially for a live-in couple who only have each other. If Aloma detests Orren's distance and anger so much, then why doesn't she leave? She does cook and clean, trying to make the old house new again, so she is capable of at least surviving on her own. Once she acquires a job as a church pianist, she proves that she can not only survive, but thrive independently of Orren.

Aloma's hidden desire for Bell the preacher heightens my questioning and wish for her to leave Orren behind her. After the Fenton family's accident, Orren and Aloma are both orphans, but Bell is the man who shows Aloma any sympathy. Of course, Aloma tries to play off her own parents' passing as a trivial matter, as if she doesn't need them or anyone, but Bell sees through her façade (137). She's not even sure what she wants, with which Bell confronts her. He says, "Sometimes you got a cagey thing about you. Like you can't decide if you want to run off or get took in" (141). Perhaps Aloma has been independent for so long that it's all she knows and is comfortable with. Or maybe she's tired of independence and is ready for someone like Bell to love her as she's always wanted to be loved. Unlike Bell, Orren does not seem capable of this love because of his immense pain from his family's deaths. Not that this is his fault, of course, but his quickness to shut Aloma out is detrimental, especially since she is damaged from her childhood as well.

Aloma and Orren met while they were still in school, and their immaturity shows in the way they deal with home life and with each other. "Bell was right, she was tenoned to Orren...She only knew that she had been foolish, for thinking that the easy thing was the one worth wanting" (175). In the end, Aloma stays with Orren, but why? Is it a matter of this convenience that she once found desirable, or has he really begun to warm up to her? By the end of the novel, Orren has begun to show a character complexity, especially with the calf's birthing. However, the two of them never seem to progress as a couple (aside from frequent sex even when Aloma is unwilling); Orren is too overwhelmed with the death of his family to provide a stable home life for Aloma. Since she hopes that he will change, Aloma chooses not to leave Orren for Bell and remains trapped in a relationship lacking in love.

Billy's Walk Back

Ben Fountain’s novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is remarkable because almost every scene takes place in the Dallas Cowboy’s stadium, yet the reader is still able to see multiple plots develop. The climax of the novel and what, on the surface, the novel appears to be centered around is the half-time show that Bravo squad will participate in. Although it is frequently referred to throughout the novel, at no point until the squad is about to go on is it actually explained to them what they are supposed to do, and when they perform they are left confused and frustrated. Billy Fountain utilizes the halftime show and the suspense preceding it as an allegory for soldiers returning from Iraq to show how the public only perceives these soldiers and the war in general as entertainment rather than real people who must lead real lives. Fountain first draws a comparison between the soldiers unsure of what the halftime show will be and how the soldiers are not sure of what they will return to doing after the war. The soldiers are don’t know what they will do at the halftime show but trust others to let them know, “‘Yo, Josh, any word on halftime?’ ‘Not yet. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something.’ ‘You’re gonna look out for us, right, Josh? Don’t make us do anything lame’” (160). And just like Billy doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do at halftime, he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do after the war either, he tries talking to March Hawey, a successful businessman about future job prospects, but Hawey instead, “Wishes his grandson were here so they could Billy and see what a fine role model etc., etc.,” and Billy thinks, “How about a job offer, that would nice” (216). Everyone sees Billy the soldier, the warrior, the hero, but no one sees Billy the unemployed Iraq war vet. This doesn’t fit into people’s mental sets because the moment they realize Billy is an actual person, then they realize that war is not something to be trivialized or to enjoy. These people ignore the effect war has on these boys, perhaps a reason why everyone is always surprised that Billy is only 19, they view him as a superhuman, hence the immense praise he receives. But the truth is, the war does affect them. They are scarred into viewing normal occurrences in the context of war of violence, like the “Fireworks crews to their left and right shooting off nasty little rockets that hiss and sizzle like RPGs” (237). The confusion that results by thrusting them into this civilian setting demonstrates the difficulty these soldiers will have when returning to normal life. No one tells them what they’re doing at half time, because they assume that since they are soldiers, they can handle anything. However, it is because they are soldiers that they cannot sympathize with the bloodlust and trivialization of violence that has become mainstream in the culture they must return to. Therefore, the halftime show and the lack of knowledge proceeding it demonstrate the humanity of the soldiers and a nation’s refusal to acknowledge it.

Norman Oglesby's Representation

In the book, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, readers get an idea of the War on Terror from a young group of soldiers, who despite all preconceptions, are not necessarily pro-war. The book, set around the time of 2003, takes place in a Republican-dominant area of Texas during a period when the nation was a lot more pleased with the war efforts than it is now. In this book, the Bravos, the soldier group on a short tour in the United States between deployments, meets a lot of high-powered individuals, the most prominent being Norman Oglesby, fictional owner of the Dallas Cowboys. In context of the book, I believe Norman is supposed to represent the Bush administration, if not George Bush himself, during the time of war.

After reading the book, it is clear that it carries a subtle but strong anti-war sentiment, or even an anti-Bush sentiment. Bush is portrayed as creating a mess and then sending others to clean it up, the others being the Bravos. When Dime, one of the soldiers is speaking to a room of Norman’s peers, one of them asks what it was like to meet the president (something the troop had done earlier in their tour).

“Oh the president,” Dime enthuses, “what a totally charming guy!” Everyone knows he is bluffing, though, as the following passage states, “The rest of the Bravos strain for studiously blank expressions as Dime’s loathing for the Yale brat—his words—is well-known within the platoon (134).”

Bush is a member of the elite, or upper-class, and the Bravos are all members of the lower-class fighting for the war he created. In a similar way to Bush, Norman is also a member of elite society, and he relishes in his position as such. When the Bravos are trying to get a movie deal, Norman is the man they need to back them up and put money into the project. Norman is a business man, though, and wants to put as little money in as possible for as big a personal return as he can. When Dime is trying to negotiate with Norman, Billy thinks, “…if it was up to him, he would fold right now. It’s too strong, the dark mojo of these rich, powerful men operating in the comfort of their home turf, and Norm above all with his kindly blue eyes, his fatherly patience, the paralytic force field of his mesmerizing narcissism (276).”

The way in which Billy describes Norm is metaphorically how Bush is portrayed in the novel; a rich old man who sits with his team at home while others do his dirty work abroad. Though I do not think that author, Ben Fountain, wrote this novel to turn readers against the Bush administration, I do think he intentionally made Norman, and unlikeable, (not) ironically Texan man, Bush’s representation. This novel is meant to open readers’ eyes to “the war at home,” but not the one that was preached in the early 2000s. A key way in which the novel does this is with this representation of Bush.  

Faison's Role in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

Throughout Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Billy feels undeserving of the rewards or situation that he is put in. After his return from Iraq, Billy is honestly a little confused why so many people appreciate his service and find him so heroic. In Billy’s mind, what he did on the battlefield was because of what he was trained to do. Billy understands that hasn’t done very much in his life, as he is only 19 years old and someone with a college degree. Thus, he doesn’t feel like he deserves all of the fame and spotlight that comes with the Victory Tour. 

This is especially true with Faison, who is one of the Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleaders. When Fiason brings up how hard it must have been for Billy to talk about his friend’s death, Billy tells Fiason that he doesn’t understand why he is “[b]eing honored for the worst day of [his] life” (149). Later, while they share an intimate moment, Billy freaks out and thinks about how lucky he is for making out with a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. Billy feels undeserving of this situation, knowing that that world’s most desired cheerleaders aren’t supposed to be attracted to an average male from Texas. What makes this moment in the book more shocking is when Fiason tells Billy that being intimate with someone is “a really serious thing for me” (155). This causes Billy to think that she wants a relationship with him.

However, Sergeant Dime quickly brings Billy Lynn back to reality. Dime knows that his intimate moment was insignificant and that Fiason did it because “she was doing something nice for the troops” (179).  Billy understands that Dime is right and that any thought of a relationship with Fiason is irrational. Billy knows the sad reality of his life as a “heroic” soldier. Once the Victory Tour ends and he takes off his uniform, his life will revert back to boring life that he had before. Faison is an individual that Billy wishes he could have, but when reality sets in, he’s knows he’s just another 19 year old kid from Texas.

Women vs. creatures

“Unnerved by immensities” (21), Billy desperately needs something ‘normal’ to keep him grounded. Women are usually that ‘something’ for all of the soldiers, but Billy is actually able to put a name and a face to his fantasies by the end of the novel. As soldiers, these men in Bravo do not have any contact with women for months on end, which gives them no experience with women outside of their heads and their attitude towards women becomes degrading and somewhat explicit. When Mango and Billy talk about the strip club in Texas, Mango refers to the women as “stripper hos” (25) and Billy is “struck by a broader notion about young lively bodies and the human meat market and supposedly inexorable laws of supply and demand. Society may not need you, strictly speaking, but some sort of use can usually be found” (26), which completely objectifies the women and presents them as things to be used for the pleasure of others. Later, after the press conference, Billy refers to the cheerleaders as “creatures” (141), which make them less human. Then, when Billy has met Faison, Mango tells him, “Dude, gotta be some way you can get with her” (263), which is not an innocent statement. Overall, all of the Bravos are obsessed with sex and ‘getting women’ and ultimately their mentality is very degrading towards women.

Although all of the men, including Billy are mentally very sexually active and explicit, I do not think that it is completely their fault. Genetically, this is how the brain of a young male works if he does not work to control his thoughts. In Iraq, sexuality is the least of their worries and no one is there to teach them lessons about how to treat women. Many of these men have tough family backgrounds as well that were not conducive for learning about the respectful treatment of women. Billy’s own father had an affair for years that everyone just accepted as okay. I do not think that the way these men think and behave when they get the chance is moral or ethical, but I also think that most of them are not mature enough to realize the error in their ways.

However, I think that Billy is mentally one step ahead of the rest of the guys. While he has very sexual, inappropriate thoughts in which he completely objectifies women, he also has moments of deep respect. Like everything else in the war, sometimes it is better or easier to “compartmentalize “ (83). When he gets a blowjob after the night at the strip club, thoughts of it later make him want to shoot himself. He knows that it did not mean anything, that it was just a ‘transaction’ to satisfy his sexual desires, but he is mature enough to recognize that he needs something deeper and that actions like that are disrespectful towards everyone involved. Then, when the halftime show contains raunchy dancing he says, “It creeps on him…the utter weirdness of the halftime show and the fact that everybody seems okay with it” (234). He recognizes that people in America “love to talk up God and country but it’s the devil they propose, all those busy little biochemical devils of sex and death and war that simmer at the base of the skull” (235). This shows that Billy recognizes that even the things that he thinks about or even does are not right; humans are not meant to kill each other or use each other. Human beings were created to love.

When Billy meets Faison, his mental confliction is put to the test. He is very physical with her very quickly, which leads me to define their short relationship as mostly lustful, but I know that Billy did not intend it to be this way. He desperately wanted to fall in love and he did not have time to actually do so. When they first kiss and it is a short, pure kiss, “he pulls back and discovers the pleasure in the restraint” (153). Then, when he daydreams about their first intense encounter, he recognizes that fantasizing about her and what they did together and classifying it as real love could make him a “shallow bastard” (179).  “He wants both, he wants the entire body-soul connect because anything less is just demeaning” (72).

Overall, I think that, while the soldiers are demeaning towards women, Billy is beginning to realize that there is more than just ‘sexual needs.’ He is still a hormonal teenage boy who wants the physical contact, so he still has more to learn, but he is on the right track. Do you think that his behavior towards Faison shows his mature or his immature way of thinking about women? Was what they did right?