As I was discussing in my previous blog post, Vonnegut does something in Slaughterhouse-Five that has raised a lot of varied responses from out class. I am referring to his repetition of "so it goes" every single time that somebody in the book dies. Some people thought that this was very annoying, and it was a pet peeve of theirs. Others said that they found it to be callous and disrespectful (a view that I disagree with wholeheartedly). I think this occurrence in the novel deserves much more analysis.
The most obvious way to frame this comment at the death of every one is to look at it through the view of Tralfamadorian philosophy. It goes very well with the whole viewpoint that death is not an earth shattering event but rather just a moment on everyones timeline. When someone dies physically they never actually die because of the memories and experiences they have created for others. Saying "so it goes'' at the end of each death could be viewed as making the reader focus less on the actual death an more on the rest of that persons lives; it serves as a tool to put death in to perspective. By definition it has to happen to EVERYONE so why not just come to grips with it.
I certainly see this argument as playing a huge role in why Vonnegut chooses to write this at the end of each death. I see another aspect to it as well; a very chilling one. Every time Vonnegut wrote "so it goes", I almost got goosebumps because of how scary that really is. It reminds me of how final life is and that it will happen to everyone, and not in a huge dramatic sequence but more in the form of a whimper. I see this as a man that has seen so much death trying to cope with it, and that in itself voids the disrespectful argument invalid.
The most obvious way to frame this comment at the death of every one is to look at it through the view of Tralfamadorian philosophy. It goes very well with the whole viewpoint that death is not an earth shattering event but rather just a moment on everyones timeline. When someone dies physically they never actually die because of the memories and experiences they have created for others. Saying "so it goes'' at the end of each death could be viewed as making the reader focus less on the actual death an more on the rest of that persons lives; it serves as a tool to put death in to perspective. By definition it has to happen to EVERYONE so why not just come to grips with it.
I certainly see this argument as playing a huge role in why Vonnegut chooses to write this at the end of each death. I see another aspect to it as well; a very chilling one. Every time Vonnegut wrote "so it goes", I almost got goosebumps because of how scary that really is. It reminds me of how final life is and that it will happen to everyone, and not in a huge dramatic sequence but more in the form of a whimper. I see this as a man that has seen so much death trying to cope with it, and that in itself voids the disrespectful argument invalid.
As we've discussed, the seemingly simple phrase carries a range of implications. As you suggest here, one of them is to merely emphasize what we all know but don't like to acknowledge: An individual death is not inherently tragic or monumental; on the contrary, it's the most ordinary, natural thing in the world. "So it goes" is another way of saying, "This is how it is. This is how it always will be."
ReplyDeleteOr, "Why you? Why anybody?"