Slaughterhouse-Five - Motif

"So it goes." (pretty much every single page)

The phrase "so it goes" is repeated countless times in the novel. It is preceded by a death or some other terrible incident. The phrase is very nonchalant and unemotional. This is, however, not because the author does not care. The phrase signifies that all of these deaths are equal. It does not matter how the deaths happened. Someone is still dead. The tone of the phrase adds more weight to the deaths. By acting as if the deaths are not a big deal, it actually adds gravity to each event.