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Theme Of Free Will In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

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Death is never an easy topic to discuss and most fear the thought alone. To many, it brings bad thoughts to the mind and a plethora of people try to block out such concepts. Despite great unrest over the subject, “Slaughterhouse-Five” written by Kurt Vonnegut discusses death as if it is typical dinner table talk. In the novel, many reoccurring themes and motifs are used; one, in particular, is the saying “so it goes” which is seen multiple times throughout the novel. The author appears to only use the saying “so it goes” in times of distress or death. The quote ties into the theme of fate vs. free will. Do the characters really have a choice over what happens to them? Not quite. No one can control their death in a time of war and many die …show more content…

So it goes” (Vonnegut 25). The “so it goes”, used by Vonnegut, is a nod to his and Billy’s cynical perspective of the world. No one can control their fate, and when people die the world continues to move on. The world doesn't stop to mourn over a single person; it continues to spin and people carry on. The novel carries on and goes back in time to Billy’s experience in Germany during World War Two. After being left for dead, Billy comes across Weary who fought in a battle: “It killed everybody on the gun crew but Weary. So it goes” (Vonnegut 35). Vonnegut brings up “so it goes” to make a point of Weary’s experience with war. Weary had no control over the fact that he would be the only one to walk away from the battle alive. Despite being the only one left standing out of his group he continued to go on and fight through the war not sitting there and reminiscing on what could have been. Billy and Weary move on with two other scouts until the scouts decide that Weary and Billy are nothing but dead weight that's holding them back. The two were later captured by the Germans and taken as prisoners of war. They were put on boxcars packed with other soldiers and to the horror of Billy he saw that “the Germans carried a corpse out. The corpse was Wild Bob. So it goes” (Vonnegut 69). Yet again another instance in which a death occurs and

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