So it Goes...

As Vonnegut starts the second chapter, as well as the second novel, he is more relaxed. I'm not sure if the story is fictional or if it's based on some of Vonnegut's real life events. He starts talking about this guy named Billy, instead in the first chapter he was talking in first person. Well, Billy has a weird ability which was taught to him by aliens from the planet of Tralfamadore. This ability allows him to kind of travel in time, although they may also be just flashbacks. But what makes the book different and almost funny is the phrase "So it goes.", which he uses a lot. What's puzzling though, is that he uses it only after events that are tragic. For example, "While Billy was recuperating in a hospital in Vermont, his wife died accidentally of carbon-monoxide poisoning. So it goes."(p 25) In a regular book, you'd sort of expect the writer to make the moment more sad or at least longer. In this book, it's sort of saying "Well, too bad. Moving on then...", so it makes it funny, but you won't laugh because he just said his wife died. "So it goes" is up to now my favorite phrase of Slaughter House Five.