Why does the author utilize "so it goes" after every time he mentions a death? I think, the author is trying to emphasize the Tralfamadorian (what a weird name) perception of time.
"All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist..."(p.27). By writing the phrase "so it goes", the author is trying to not put any special significance to anybody's death. Everybody, who is dead "only appears to be dead" (p.26). Death is just one particular moment, but there are many other moments as well, according the book.
It seems to me, like the author is not putting a big value to people’s life. People are dying and all he says is “so it goes” ? He said in the first chapter, that he is trying to write a war book and many people died during the war. I do not think, we should move on and not to realize, how many ordinary people actually died. Do you have any idea, why is he using “so it goes”, because it does not make really sense to me?
I also wondered why an anti-war book would want to downplay the emotional effects of individual deaths. The only thing I can think of is that Vonnegut is trying to feature the "so it goes" view to better illustrate how wrong it is. Maybe he thinks that the people who are in favor of war have this "oh, that's just what happens" view on the impacts of war.
ReplyDelete