Take it slow, Billy

In Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, we see a young soldier making a brief return trip home from a brutal tour in Iraq before having to ship back for his victory tour. While he is on leave, it becomes clear that Billy is suffering from the effects of war. While it is common in war novels and narratives for the soldier to have a warped sense of time in the war zone, Fountain gives the perspective of a soldier returned home to a society obesessed with movement and creating new objectives. A soldier is used to being occupied with whatever he/she is tasked with by their CO or having to keep alert during wartime. The life of a soldier involves constant motion, but for different purposes than civilians. On page 86 Billy's mother and sisters try to ask what he wants to do, but he seems content with letting the morning "lazily takes its course" (86). What's interesting is how Fountain uses this seen to really show that contrast between the passage of time in civilian and military life. Billy's military life has caused him to lose track of the calendar days and made life seem to be moving faster, aging in "dog years" (86). Comparatively, this difference between civilian and military conceptions of time allows Billy to be, "if not exactly calm, then still" (86).