How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
So is this what they meant by the sanctity of life? A soft groan escaped Billy when he thought about that, the war revealed in this fresh and gruesome light. Oh. Ugh. Divine spark, image of God, suffer the little children and all that—there's real power when words attach to actual things. (Bully.38)
Billy is playing with his nephew and thoroughly enjoying himself—to his surprise—when this thought strikes him. He suddenly realizes that the war is supposed to be about fighting for kids like Brian, and trying desperately to preserve their precious innocence…and that blows his mind a little bit.
Quote #8
All your soldier life you dream of such a moment and every Joe with a weapon got a piece of it, a perfect storm of massing fire and how those beebs blew apart, hair, teeth, eyes, hands, tender melon heads, exploding soup-stews of shattered chests, sights not to be believed and never forgotten and your mind simply will not leave it alone. Oh my people. Mercy was not a selection, period. Only later did the concept of mercy even occur to Billy, and then only in the context of its absence in that place, a foreclosing of options that reached so far back in history that quite possibly mercy had not been an option there since before all those on the battlefield were born. (All American.137)
We feel like this quote would be best discussed with the "shocked into silence" emoji. So here you go.
Quote #9
"Why should I watch myself?"
"Because in case you haven't noticed this is a highly partisan country we live in, Billy. Those guys are smart, they know who the enemy is. They aren't fooled by a couple of bulls*** war medals."
Billy glances at his chest, considering his medals in this possibly sinister light.
"I'm not the enemy."
"Oh hooooo, you don't think? They decide, not you. They're the deciders when it comes to who's a real American, dude." (Everything.106-110)
This is terrible. Billy thinks he's home from the war, safe in the welcoming embrace of his fellow patriots, but Dime blows that all apart when he tells him that the enemy is the guys who sent him to war in the first place. Billy learns that he's just been a pawn, really, and nothing he ever does will quite change that. Nobody really cares about him.