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.

Sergeant Dime Character Analysis

Sergeant Dime is Billy's 24-year-old commander in the Army and is also part of the Bravos. Though Dime denies it, Shroom once claimed that Dime came from a wealthy family in North Carolina and was a football star. Dime reads books voraciously and has a number of magazine subscriptions. His primary goal in life is to gain knowledge, which also carries over into how he manages his platoon: in Iraq, he often made Bravo Squad get out of the Humvees and walk, just to see the area, even though doing so was extremely dangerous. He keeps the platoon on their toes and attempts, unsuccessfully, to keep them from drinking while at the Texas Stadium. Billy seeks Dime out for advice about Faison, though Dime only offers Billy a reality check by saying that the only thing he can do is email her. Billy is often caught between hating Dime and thinking that he'd die for him, a sentiment that's shared by Bravo Squad as a whole. Dime is impulsive and given to rude outbursts at inappropriate times (as seen when he insults Norm when Norm tries to convince him to take the $5,500 film deal), but Dime is also unwaveringly loyal to the rest of Bravo and wants to do what's best for them.

Sergeant Dime Quotes in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

The Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk quotes below are all either spoken by Sergeant Dime or refer to Sergeant Dime. 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 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 5 Quotes

What's happening now isn't nearly as real as that, eating this meal, holding this fork, lifting this glass, the realest things in the world these days are the things in his head.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Shroom, Albert Ratner, Lake
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

Billy rattled off the cities. Washington, Richmond, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Raleigh-Durham, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Miami, and practically every one, as Sergeant Dime pointed out, happened to lie in an electoral swing state.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn (speaker), Sergeant Dime, Kathryn Lynn, Ray Lynn, Mr. Whaley
Page Number: 88
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 9 Quotes

So fuck that, he was done with football after his sophomore year, except the Army is pretty much the same thing, though the violence is, well, what it is, obviously. By factors of thousands.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Albert Ratner, Norm Oglesby
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

"Son, try to look at it this way. It's just another normal day in America."

Billy's heart melts a little at that son. The stage is disappearing around them like a mortally wounded ship beneath the waves.

"I don't think I even know what normal is anymore."

Related Characters: Billy Lynn (speaker), Sergeant Dime (speaker), Sykes, The Roadies
Page Number: 242
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

Plus the fact that the war's put up some spotty box-office numbers, didn't I say that might be a problem? So we're bucking that too. I know fifty-five hundred sounds pretty lame after the numbers we've been talking about, but for young men like yourselves, young soldiers on Army pay, it's not nothing, right?

Related Characters: Albert Ratner (speaker), Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Norm Oglesby
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Quotes

They are his boys, his brothers. Bravos would die for one another. They are the truest friends he will ever have, and he'd expire from grief and guilt at not being there with them.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Shroom, Kathryn Lynn, Faison
Page Number: 294
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk LitChart as a printable PDF.
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk PDF

Sergeant Dime Quotes in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

The Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk quotes below are all either spoken by Sergeant Dime or refer to Sergeant Dime. 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 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 5 Quotes

What's happening now isn't nearly as real as that, eating this meal, holding this fork, lifting this glass, the realest things in the world these days are the things in his head.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Shroom, Albert Ratner, Lake
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

Billy rattled off the cities. Washington, Richmond, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Raleigh-Durham, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Miami, and practically every one, as Sergeant Dime pointed out, happened to lie in an electoral swing state.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn (speaker), Sergeant Dime, Kathryn Lynn, Ray Lynn, Mr. Whaley
Page Number: 88
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 9 Quotes

So fuck that, he was done with football after his sophomore year, except the Army is pretty much the same thing, though the violence is, well, what it is, obviously. By factors of thousands.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Albert Ratner, Norm Oglesby
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

"Son, try to look at it this way. It's just another normal day in America."

Billy's heart melts a little at that son. The stage is disappearing around them like a mortally wounded ship beneath the waves.

"I don't think I even know what normal is anymore."

Related Characters: Billy Lynn (speaker), Sergeant Dime (speaker), Sykes, The Roadies
Page Number: 242
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

Plus the fact that the war's put up some spotty box-office numbers, didn't I say that might be a problem? So we're bucking that too. I know fifty-five hundred sounds pretty lame after the numbers we've been talking about, but for young men like yourselves, young soldiers on Army pay, it's not nothing, right?

Related Characters: Albert Ratner (speaker), Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Norm Oglesby
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Quotes

They are his boys, his brothers. Bravos would die for one another. They are the truest friends he will ever have, and he'd expire from grief and guilt at not being there with them.

Related Characters: Billy Lynn, Sergeant Dime, Shroom, Kathryn Lynn, Faison
Page Number: 294
Explanation and Analysis: