So It Goes. (Mantra) - Novel Blog 3 (Slaughterhouse-Five)

"So it goes."

~ Slaughterhouse-Five, just about every other page in the book

When novels have mantras, it's pretty clear that the author is hinting at some kind of theme or main point. The mantra in Slaughterhouse-Five is "so it goes," and you can find that quote on just about any page in the book.

The quote is found after every time something unfortunate happens, usually a death. One may think that it is really ironic, and I guess in a way it is, but the message behind it is completely serious.

Throughout the book, I've been picking up a mood of resignation and acceptance of the inevitable. I think that that may be a theme. Billy is so accepting of all the crap that's happened to him. I mean if I were abducted by aliens and kept jumping around in time, I would probably have questions, if not some concerns.

But anyway, the mantra represents this theme because it's simple, straightforward nature mirrors that of the perspective that "death is something I and everybody else cannot control; that is how the world works and the sooner we can deal with that, the sooner we can live the life we possess at the moment." It's a little harsh, but given the conditions Billy is under where he never knows who he will be with next or even what year it will be, it makes sense in context.

Parallels - Novel Blog 1 (Slaughterhouse-Five)

"Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath - mustard gas and roses. It was a wrong number. Billy hung up."

~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 73

Okay, so this book is a little difficult (I have a hard enough time when it's in chronological order), but here's a stab at some analysis.

There are so many different recurring events in the novel, but I'm pretty sure there's a particularly significant parallel here. At the beginning, Billy first was confronted by Barbara about his article in the paper, and she was really upset because, well, naturally people get upset when they think their parents are crazy. Billy was talking about all the time travel he had done and the Tralmafadorians. Billy had also been in the war and is clearly suffering (at least during some parts of the novel) from PTSD (that's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, people). I think there is a link between the war and the time travel (shocker, right?). Barbara is so upset by this time travel thing, but Billy just accepts it completely like the Tralmafadorians do. There's a quote in the book and I'm  not sure what page it is, but it talks about freewill and how the aliens had never heard of it until they met humans. Billy is not only subject totally to the time travel, but also to his PTSD and war experiences. The reason Billy is so open to the abduction and being "unstuck from time" is because he has already used to dealing with unpleasant things that he feels he cannot change; he succumbs to the idea rather than rebelling against it. I'm not really sure if any of this is important, but that was a parallel I found in the book!