Three words

I am writing a blog for history as fiction class. So it goes. In Slaughterhouse Vonnegut continuously uses the phrase “so it goes”. So far in the book Vonnegut has used this phrase over and over after the death of someone. At first I had different thoughts of how I took Vonnegut using “so it goes” over and over. At first I had to say I thought that this was very rude. I felt that Vonnegut was disrespecting the dead by just glossing over the details. Even though we are not properly introduced to the soldiers that get shot early in the book, it still felt that when Vonnegut quickly ended the scene with “so it goes” the importance of the men were just forgotten. However when we discussed the importance of the words “so it goes” during class, my opinions about this line of words changed. I feel that Vonnegut does not want to dwell on the past traumatic events. Even though the deaths of these men might be painful, we should continue to move on. This idea is shown with the story of Lot’s wife who turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back. I feel that by continuously repeating this line of words, Vonnegut is reminding us of the importance of the people who died. Another way I see the importance of these three words is it shows just how threatening war can be. I feel Vonnegut is making the point there will be death, “so it goes”.  I now see just how powerful these three words are.