Theo answers “What does "So it goes" mean? The narrator...”

Nadya asked this question about Slaughterhouse-Five:

What does "So it goes" mean? The narrator seems to say that every time someone dies, so I was wondering what it meant.

Theo There's obviously a lot of interpretations about that motif, but for me I think the most interesting is "so the story goes." Since one of Slaughterhou…moreThere's obviously a lot of interpretations about that motif, but for me I think the most interesting is "so the story goes." Since one of Slaughterhouse-Five's main themes is the deconstruction of what's really true with regards to literature and the logic of story telling, using so it goes as a way of hinting that it may not exactly be true fits. This interpretation is also backed up by the idea that the Tralfamadorians view humans as one long lifetime, so just because someone dies now in the story doesn't mean they're actually dead. Just dead in the story. (less)

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Slaughterhouse-Five

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

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