Kurt Vonnegut's recurring phrase, "So it goes," punctuates the bleak realities of war and death in his novel Slaughterhouse-Five. This seemingly simple, almost dismissive refrain acts as a constant, sobering reminder of life's transience and the indiscriminate nature of fate. When considered as a musical element, "So it goes" functions like a recurring motif in an ensemble piece – a leitmotif that binds disparate movements and characters together under a shared, somber understanding. The ensemble of the novel, comprised of characters and events, is orchestrated by this recurring phrase, creating a disquieting harmony that resonates with the absurdity and pain of human existence.
The ensemble of characters in Slaughterhouse-5 is anything but harmonious in the traditional sense. Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist, is a fractured man, unstuck in time, experiencing his life out of chronological order. His wartime experiences, particularly the firebombing of Dresden, leave him deeply traumatized. Other characters, like the philosophical alien inventor Kilgore Trout or the gruesomely pragmatic Edgar Derby, contribute discordant notes to the narrative's overall sound. Yet, it is precisely through their shared encounters with destruction and loss, marked by "So it goes," that a peculiar kind of ensemble emerges. The phrase doesn't offer comfort or resolution; instead, it provides a shared acknowledgment of a universal fate. When the barbershop quartet sings "Olaf, Olaf, my son, my son" just before Paul Lazzaro plans revenge on Billy, the musical interlude is jarring, yet the subsequent repetition of "So it goes" after Edgar Derby’s execution by firing squad for stealing a teapot brings a dark, unifying resonance. This shared refrain acts as a somber chord struck after each tragic note, unifying the ensemble in their collective vulnerability.
The historical event of the Dresden bombing serves as the novel's central, catastrophic movement. Vonnegut, a survivor himself, portrays the event not as a glorious battle, but as an act of senseless annihilation. The sheer scale of destruction – the vaporization of a city and its inhabitants – is met with the stark simplicity of "So it goes." This phrase, appearing after descriptions of the massacre, functions like a recurring percussive beat, a relentless marking of time and loss. The individual lives extinguished are reduced to a collective tragedy, and the ensemble of victims becomes a singular, silent chorus. The phrase prevents the reader from dwelling on individual heroism or villainy, instead forcing an acceptance of the indiscriminate nature of the event. It's a musical cue that signals the end of one section of suffering and the impending start of another, without any sense of closure or triumph.
Beyond the immediate context of war, "So it goes" also serves as a unifying element for the novel's exploration of free will versus determinism. Billy’s belief that he is abducted by aliens and lives his life out of order suggests a deterministic universe, where events are preordained. This idea, often conveyed through his disjointed narrative, finds a parallel in the fatalistic cadence of "So it goes." It implies that regardless of individual actions or desires, certain outcomes are inevitable. The ensemble of characters, each struggling with their own circumstances, are all ultimately subject to the same unyielding rhythm of existence and death. The phrase doesn't offer a way out; it simply states the fact of inevitable conclusion. This creates a somber, almost hypnotic harmony, where the individual struggles of characters like Billy, Derby, or Lazzaro are all subsumed into a larger, inescapable pattern.
Ultimately, the phrase "So it goes" functions as the conductor's baton, the steady beat that keeps the novel's fractured ensemble moving forward, even when the music is terrible. It is the recurring chord progression that lends a dark, undeniable unity to the chaos. The novel does not offer a grand symphony of hope, but rather a powerful, unsettling ensemble piece where the recurring motif of "So it goes" forces an acknowledgment of shared mortality and the often brutal, absurd nature of life. This motif transforms the disparate elements of the narrative – characters, events, and philosophical musings – into a cohesive, albeit mournful, whole, leaving the reader with a profound, lingering resonance.