So it goes

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Death is absolute. Kurt Vonnegut challenges this basic principle in his novel Slaughterhouse - Five. The plot revolves around a soldier, Billy Pilgrim, who meets the Tralfamadorians, an alien race, who alter his perception of time and reality. Kurt Vonnegut coins the phrase “So it goes,” which serves to equalize all deaths as well as to diminish their severity, and create a satirical social commentary on the insignificance of human misery. The phrase “So it goes” is used extensively throughout Slaughterhouse - 5, and essentially devalues any event that precedes it. The following quote is an anecdote from one of the narrator’s gruesome experiences after WWII. “The elevator door on the first floor was ornamental iron lace. Iron ivy snaked in and out of the holes. There was an iron twig with two iron lovebirds perched upon it. This veteran decided to take his car into the basement, and he closed the door and started down,but his wedding ring was caught in all the ornaments. So he was hoisted into the air and the floor of the car went down, dropped out from under him, and the top of th...

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