“So it goes” (Vonnegut 133). This phrase appears too
many times to count throughout this novel. At first I did not quite understand
why he put it in the story so much. After four or five chapters, I started to
realize that “So it goes” occurs after death or dying. I still do not know if I
know exactly why he puts it yet. My guess and what I believe is that he uses
this phrase to show that death will always occur. It is simply part of life.
According to Billy’s new point of view and the Tralfamadorians, no one is truly
dead. They are just absent in that moment. They are still living in the past
moments: somewhere else at some other time. To me, this is very similar to my
outlook on heaven. Although the soul moves on to be with God in heaven, the
memories stay with us. “And so on.” (Vonnegut 31). One’s time on earth is how they will be
remembered after they are deceased and their soul moves on to the next life. “So
it goes.”
This was a motif that I also had trouble understanding untill later in the novel. I agree with Kyle that this motif shows that Vonnegut believes that death will always occur and is apart of life, which almost sounds depressing. I believe that death is something that Vonnegut had a very strong opinion on and it shows through this motif.
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