Slaughterhouse Five Literary Analysis

Slaughterhouse Five
The concept of a linear beginning, middle, and end in the progression of time is thrown askew in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse­Five through Billy’s travels through time and space.
All people on earth experience a chronological progression of time; they experience birth and death, and are able to perceive the consequences of their actions. Because of Billy’s time travel, death does not represent the ultimate end to one’s life. Therefore, to Billy death does not retain the importance that it does to others. The use of "So it goes" in the novel points out the inevitability of death but also represents the idea that each person is living through different moments in time giving death has no meaning.
Billy’s early mentions of “so it goes” in the novel show how Billy equalizes all deaths on
In the fourth chapter of the novel, a homeless man dies on Billy’s railway car, “On the ninth day, the hobo died. So it goes.”(79) In this quote you see Billy facing the death of someone who doesn’t mean a lot to him, by using so it goes. The surprising thing about
Billy, is that his reaction to the death of the homeless man is practically the same as his reaction to the death of his father, “My father died many years ago now­of natural causes. So it goes. He was a sweet man. He was a gun nut, too. He left me his guns. They rust." (210) In this quote you see the similar reaction/coping method used by Billy in the death of the homeless man and many of the other deaths that Billy experiences during the novel. Because Billy knows that the person, although dead, is still living in the past he is able to equalize all deaths. This idea that everyone is living in separate moments, was introduced to Billy by the Tralfamadorians.
The Tralfamadorians show Billy the symbolism behind "So it goes" and that death has no true meaning. Billy learns a lot from the Tralfamadorian idea that,"when a person dies he
The Tralfamadorians lead billy to believe that because of this, death has no meaning. Since the person is living through other moments of their life they are not truly dead. This idea helped Billy cope with the overwhelming pain of death.
The Tralfamadorians also give Billy another insight on his own life that help drive him to form his own ideas. This is where “so it goes” is born and where Billy finds his coping mechanism for death. The Tralfamadorians view of death gives Billy a new insight, that helps him face the many tragedies he has experienced, "When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes." (27)
The way Billy and the Tralfamadorians view death is similar to the way religious people view death. Their faith comforts them when a person passes, similar to the way “so it goes”