Billy Lynn Has A Word Salad

One of the most interesting things that Ben Fountain does in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is to insert sections where a series of words are strewn, unconnected, around the page. These sections, which I call “word salad,” often appear when a civilian is bestowing praise on Billy.

The word salad is generally composed of a series of seemingly patriotic buzzwords: terror, sacrifice, 9/11, WMDs, etc. Words are often spelled phonetically to imitate a Texan accent. For instance, 9/11 will be written as “nina leven” (2). One of the most striking things about these passages is their similarity. They’re the same faux-patriotic buzzwords which have been repeated so many times by Fox News broadcasters, and by the people that Bravo has to socialize with, that they’ve lost all meaning. The scattered and unconnected placement of the words on the page symbolizes the way that the words stand on their own now that they have been deprived of meaning by constant repetition.

This interpretation is supported by the fact that the “word salad” arrangement is not only used when civilians are talking about the war. It’s also used when Faison starts evangelizing to Billy, using what seems like the standard Christian schtick: God, Jerusalem, died for us, Jews, etc. (152), and when March Hawey tries to educate Billy on the intricacies of business, talking about things like “fixed assets” and “debentures.” Here, the word salad illustrates they way that Hawey speaks, not by phonetically spelling words according to his accent, but by using type fonts and capitalization for emphasis. “Players’ union” is written in all caps with five exclamation points on the end to illustrate that it’s an idea Hawey hates so much he gets angry and the mention of it, and when Hawey talks about a salary cap for players, it’s written out in a fancy type font to illustrate Hawey’s fondness of this concept (120).

The scattering of the words also illustrates the way that Billy experiences these conversations. He and the rest of Bravo have been hearing almost these exact same words from scores of people all through their tour. Since they are being forced to hear these same things over and over again, it’s no wonder Billy zones out and “[lets] the words whirl and tumble around his brain” (1) whenever someone starts to say them. Especially for soldiers who are exposed to constant repetition of it, the standard issue “grand sacrifice for our country” speech doesn’t improve with repetition.