Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

by

Ben Fountain

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk makes teaching easy.

Mango Character Analysis

Mango is Bravo's nickname for Marc Montoya. He's Mexican-American and only a year or two older than Billy. Because of Mango's Mexican origins, he often gets teased about being an illegal alien, but Mango is able to shut these speculations down by his ability to list all the presidents and vice presidents of the United States. Mango is Billy's closest friend in the Army, and they both feel resigned to work dead-end jobs upon their release from the Army. Mango attracts Dime's wrath for announcing that football is boring, something that Dime uses to tease Mango even more about not being a real American.

Mango Quotes in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

The Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk quotes below are all either spoken by Mango or refer to Mango. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fantasy vs. Reality in the Media Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

It dawns on him that the Texas Stadium is basically a shithole. It's cold, gritty, drafty, dirty, in general possessed of all the charm of an industrial warehouse where people pee in the corners.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Norm Oglesby, Mango
Related Symbols: The Texas Stadium
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

Their eyes skitz and quiver with the force of the moment, because here, finally, up close and personal, is the war made flesh, an actual point of contact after all the months and years of reading about the war, watching the war on TV, hearing the war flogged and flacked on talk radio.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Mango
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:

"It was. I had to keep telling myself this is real, these are real American soldiers fighting for our freedom, this is not a movie. Oh God I was just so happy that day, I was relieved more than anything, like we were finally paying them back for nina leven. Now"—she pauses for a much-needed breath—"which one are you?"

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Mango
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

He glows, which isn't to say he's a handsome man but rather shimmers with high-wattage celebrity, and therein lies the problem, the brain struggles to match the media version to the actual man who looks taller than the preformed mental image, or maybe broader, older, pinker, younger, the two versions miscongrue in some crucial sense which makes it all a little unreal [...]

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Norm Oglesby, Mango
Related Symbols: The Texas Stadium
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

Somewhere along the way America became a giant mall with a country attached.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Faison, Mango
Related Symbols: The Texas Stadium
Page Number: 222
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk LitChart as a printable PDF.
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk PDF

Mango Quotes in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

The Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk quotes below are all either spoken by Mango or refer to Mango. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fantasy vs. Reality in the Media Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

It dawns on him that the Texas Stadium is basically a shithole. It's cold, gritty, drafty, dirty, in general possessed of all the charm of an industrial warehouse where people pee in the corners.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Norm Oglesby, Mango
Related Symbols: The Texas Stadium
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

Their eyes skitz and quiver with the force of the moment, because here, finally, up close and personal, is the war made flesh, an actual point of contact after all the months and years of reading about the war, watching the war on TV, hearing the war flogged and flacked on talk radio.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Mango
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:

"It was. I had to keep telling myself this is real, these are real American soldiers fighting for our freedom, this is not a movie. Oh God I was just so happy that day, I was relieved more than anything, like we were finally paying them back for nina leven. Now"—she pauses for a much-needed breath—"which one are you?"

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Mango
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

He glows, which isn't to say he's a handsome man but rather shimmers with high-wattage celebrity, and therein lies the problem, the brain struggles to match the media version to the actual man who looks taller than the preformed mental image, or maybe broader, older, pinker, younger, the two versions miscongrue in some crucial sense which makes it all a little unreal [...]

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Norm Oglesby, Mango
Related Symbols: The Texas Stadium
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

Somewhere along the way America became a giant mall with a country attached.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Faison, Mango
Related Symbols: The Texas Stadium
Page Number: 222
Explanation and Analysis: