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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.
Nat I think, although many have said that it indicates how commonplace and even "neutral" death can be, repeating "So it goes" every time someone has died…moreI think, although many have said that it indicates how commonplace and even "neutral" death can be, repeating "So it goes" every time someone has died actually punctuates it and draws even more attention to it. In my reading of it, this almost seems an empathetic, even religious (like saying "Amen" at the end of a prayer) action that respects the effort of life and death. It also points out the go-ing-ness of life... in the Tralfamadorian cycle it is just one point in a continuing cycle, so it didn't just go and stop, it still goes.(less)
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Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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