Slaughterhouse-Five By Kurt Vonnegut: Quote Analysis

“So it goes.” This quote is utilized more than 100 times by author Kurt Vonnegut in the anti-war novel: Slaughterhouse Five. Now you must be wondering, why does the book keep this phrase so redundant? There is a reason this quote practically repeats itself in the entire book; because it summarizes the obstacles and hardships that we encounter in our daily, human lives. This saying from Vonnegut neatly packs the sorrows, struggles, and suffering in our lives in three simple words. So Kurt Vonnegut wants to portray or say, “Stuff happens and some of its bad, however, we should remember that in the end; it’s always going to be just okay. We deal with life’s struggles because we have to." This is the phrase has full capability to summarize Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut’s experiences, and my life.

In the novel, Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses “So it goes.”; when death, dying and mortality occur as a comic relief and to say, “Well, it is what it is…” There are numerous incidents that people have died in this novel and most of the time the author has dispassionately used this quote to bid them farewell. He uses “So it goes.” for the first time in the book on page 5, in which it states, “I really did go back to Dresden with Guggenheim money in 1967. It looked a lot like Dayton, Ohio, more open spaces
Vonnegut has had some very melancholy experiences, where he must have said, “So it goes.” One of these experiences took place in 1958, when Kurt’s sister, Alice, and her husband died within a day of each other, she died of cancer and he died in a train crash. The Vonneguts, soon, adopted their children, Tiger, Jim and Steven. This sudden occurrence of tragedy stunned Kurt Vonnegut and his whole family. Two losses in nearly one day! However, he knew that he could not do anything to prevent the catastrophe. He knew he would have to deal with it. This is why this quote relates to Vonnegut’s