Billy Pilgrim Should Not Come Essay

Throughout the entirety of the novel, Vonnegut overuses the phrase “so it goes” to exemplify the absurdity of simply accepting any level of misfortune one might encounter. Whether Billy is experiencing gruesome tragedies of war, facing the loss of loved family members, or even coming into contact with foreign aliens, the phrase consistently appears to display that Billy is merely challenged with an influx of problems because he is making no efforts to take control of his own life. For example, When commenting on the shooting of soldier Edgar Derby, literary critic Harold Bloom notes that, “Nothing more said, except the usual ‘So it goes’" (Bloom). Bloom argues that for a horrid event, Billy Pilgrim should not have such a mundane reaction.

According to Bloom’s analysis of the book, Billy Pilgrim may be more fortunate if he were to better exploit his time-traveling ability and actively work to modify his destiny. Secondly, Vonnegut employs the saying when Billy faces the loss of loved family members. Billy saw into the future and knew he was going to get into a plane crash, but took no measures to stop the crash.

His wife then died on the way to the hospital, and all Billy had to say was that, “One hour later she was dead. So it goes” (Vonnegut 342). In this passage, Vonnegut demonstrates that if Billy had cared more about the safety of those around him, his wife would not have died. Instead of taking initiative, however, Billy stuck to his nonchalant attitude and suffered a loss as a result. After seeing the pain inflicted upon Billy for his carelessness, the audience will likely understand that Vonnegut is strongly against the idea of predetermined fate. Lastly, this phrase is used even in the most bizarre scenarios to prove how little Billy Pilgrim is doing to determine his destiny. In the beginning of the novel, the protagonist admits that, “...I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say...which is ‘So it goes’ “ (Vonnegut 59). It is absurd that Billy gets abducted by aliens (also known as Tralfamadorians), but it is even more absurd that he allows them to kidnap him. He does not fight for his freedom and ends up living in a Tralfamadorian zoo, which Vonnegut may have intentionally done to prove the importance of managing one’s own

fate. Ultimately, Kurt Vonnegut utilizes the words “so it goes” so frequently when detailing Billy Pilgrim’s hardships to present the detrimental effects of believing a superior power controls destiny.