So It Goes.

Death is evidently a fairly significant aspect in Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five".  Additionally, with every mention of death, there comes along the quote "so it goes" at the end of that paragraph.  From early on, the quote "so it goes" represented the transient nature that the alien creatures that abducted Billy believed in.  Now, as the war progresses and more men are dying around Billy, the phrase has come to mean more to Billy.  Billy has come to view the lives of men around him as simple moments of existence and their current "being alive" is only relative to the current moment.  In a different period of time, that person is still alive and well.  Simply put, death has become very meaningless to Billy due to the delusions that the aliens have put into his head. "Billy was the only one to have a coat from a dead civilian. So it goes"(Vonnegut, 82).  This quote further proves that he feels little attachment to the tenderness of life.  I can imagine him reacting to the news of someones death and simply shrugging his shoulders.  Billy, to begin with, was a very disturbed man in need of help.  WIth the far in full gear, all he need now is further reasoning behind his insanity.