Goes it So?

            The phrase “so it goes” is used exactly 106 times in the entirety of Slaughterhouse-Five. As we have discussed in class, the phrase is used every time anything is considered to be “dead.” A “typical” example is Vonnegut’s first usage in the third paragraph of the novel: “[O’hare’s] mother was incinerated in the Dresden fire-storm. So it goes.” (2) The “so it goes” almost shrugs off death in a way that makes the reader question the truth of the circumstances of that death.  It can be infuriating for the reader because we want to know exactly what happened: “so it goes” is almost like Vonnegut’s cop out of taking responsibility for the accuracy of his statements.  If you think about what “so it goes” actually means, it is similar to as if Vonnegut were saying, “that is the way I have heard the story told.” 

In Billy’s letter to the newspaper about his trips to Tralfamadore has says:

When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is "so it goes.” (27)

This attitude toward life is very difficult for many readers to adjust to.  As humans, we want to find meaning in life (*cue Tralfamadorians closing their hands/eyes at our stupidity*) and are disturbed by the idea that life can just be “shrugged off”.   It’s interesting to consider that if Slaughterhouse Five were to have a thesis it might be something like: “135,000 people in Dresden were killed.  So it goes.”  This is supposed to upset and aggravate the reader.  “It matters that these people were killed!” the reader may say.  “You can’t just casually dismiss the gravity of the first statement by saying ‘so it goes’!”   “Maybe it did happen, maybe it didn’t, that’s just the way it goes” is what “so it goes” conveys to the reader.  This “thesis” of course can be undercut with the irony that the numbers Vonnegut uses are widely considered to be “false”.  According to Wikipedia, 22,700-25,000 people were killed.  But yet, does that difference in numbers really matter?  We cannot even begin to image 25,000 unique lives, let alone the 110,000 person difference between Vonnegut's and Wikipedia's numbers. Just imagine 25,000 individual “crayon-lines” coming to a halt at the same day.  So it goes.

            Vonnegut additionally diminishes the gravity of “so it goes” by offsetting all of this seemingly real and painful death with that of drinks, books, and fleas:

“Billy uncorked [the bottle] with his thumbs.  It didn’t make a pop.  The champagne was dead. So it goes.” (73)

“There was a picture of one cowboy killing another one pasted to the television.  So it goes.” (112)

“The Americans' clothes were meanwhile passing through poison gas. Body lice and bacteria and fleas were dying by the billions. So it goes.” (84)

“There was a still life on Billy's bedside table-two pills, an ashtray with three lipstick-stained cigarettes in it, one cigarette still burning, and a glass of water. The water was dead. So it goes. Air was trying to get out of that dead water. Bubbles were clinging to the walls of the glass, too weak to climb out.” (101)

“[The literary critics] were going to discuss whether the novel was dead or not. So it goes.” (205)

I was hoping to talk more about the significance of each of these quotes but do not want to write a whole short essay here, so please feel free to comment about why you think Vonnegut chooses these instances to mock his own “motto” of ‘so it goes’.