The Significance Behind "So it goes."

Siena Hoaglund
American Studies 1/2 + 3/4 B
Ivory
1/1/16
The Significance Behind "So it goes."


To anyone who has read the book Slaughterhouse Five, it is obvious that the author says the phrase "So it goes" to explain when someone in the story has died, quite often. The frequency of the phrase displays to the reader the depressing commonality of death during World War II, but also shows the narrator's sort of disbelief of the concept of death.

The phrase "So it goes" is stated when Billy's friends or family die, it's stated when lice or other bugs die, and it's even stated when the idea of a "real soldier" is considered dead. The phrase is put in place to compare the commonality of death in Billy's life to the commonality of the death during World War II.  Every small thing that dies in the book, is symbolic to every person who died during the war.
However, the quote "Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorains say about dead people, which is 'So it goes.' " (Vonnegut, 27) shows that the narrator doesn't quite believe in the concept of death. The Tralfamadorains have taught him that when someone dies in one time, they are still alive in another time. The narrator's use of the phrase "So it goes" can be their way of saying that the person that was previously stated as dead, may not actually be dead, but alive in another time period.

This concept of a never ending life is romanticized in the quote "Goodbyes are not forever, are not the end; it simply means I'll miss you until we meet again." (Unknown).

I wonder, if Vonnegut was still alive, what he would say was his reason behind the frequency of the phrase "So it goes". Did he use it just to explain when something died? Did he use it as a way to compare the commonality of death in Billy's life to the commonality of the death during World War II?  Or, did he use it to explain that he doesn't believe in the concept of death?