The phrase “so it goes”
encompasses the attitude of Billy Pilgrim and the Tralfamadorians, particularly
about wars and the bad parts of life. It represents their views of time and
gives detachment and inevitability to any death for Billy. Because the phrase
is used to describe the death of anything, from prisoners to a half-full bottle
of champagne, it assigns a certain equality (and therefore loss) to any death.
It also shows how disturbingly easy it is for Billy to process death and
immediately dissociate with it.
Another phrase that is
repeated often in a variety of situations, both in the war and out of it to
show and critique Tralfamadorian thinking is “blue and ivory”. The first time the phrase
is used is after the plane crash, when Billy is writing a letter to a newspaper
about Tralfamadore. It was cold, he was in the cellar, and, “He was barefoot,
and still in his pajamas and a bathrobe, though it was late afternoon. His bare
feet were blue and ivory” (Vonnegut 28). Later, Barbara visits Billy, but can’t
find him: “Billy didn’t answer her, so she was nearly hysterical, expecting to
find his corpse” (Vonnegut 28).
The next time “blue and
ivory” is used is while Billy and Roland Weary are walking after being captured
by the German soldiers: “Billy found the afternoon stingingly exciting. There
was so much to see—dragon’s teeth, killing machines, corpses with bare feet
that were blue and ivory. So it goes” (Vonnegut 65). This is a striking
difference to the scene before. What was once describing a very mundane
experience now describes a corpse—something deeply disturbing and traumatizing
to see.
The next few quotes all
come from the scene where Billy is about to be abducted by the Tralfamadorians
(at the beginning of chapter 4). Once again, each mention of the “blue and
ivory” seems normal and not at all associated with anything that happened
during the war from Billy’s perspective:
“He felt spooky and luminous, felt as though he were
wrapped in cool fur that was full of static electricity. He looked down at his
bare feet. They were ivory and blue.” (Vonnegut 72)
“Billy Pilgrim padded downstairs on his blue and ivory
feet.” (Vonnegut 73)
“Out he went, his blue and ivory feet crushing the wet
salad of the lawn.” (Vonnegut 75)
“Blue and ivory” is also
used when Billy is in the boxcar: “Listen—on the tenth night the peg was pulled
out of the hasp on Billy’s boxcar door, and the door was opened. Billy Pilgrim
was lying at an angle on the corner-brace, self-crucified, holding himself
there with a blue and ivory claw hooked over the sill of the ventilator.” (Vonnegut
80).
The final time “blue and
ivory” is used is the most disturbing to me. It is used to describe the corpse
of the hobo in the boxcar:
“They came to
the prison railroad yard again. They had arrived on only two cars. They would depart
far more comfortably on four. They saw the dead hobo again. He was frozen stiff
in the weeds beside the track. He was in a fetal position, trying even in death
to nestle like a spoon with the others. There were no others now. He was
nestling with thin air and cinders. Somebody had taken his boots. His bare feet
were blue and ivory. It was all right somehow, his being dead. So it goes”
(Vonnegut 148).
“Blue and ivory” bothers me just as much as “So
it goes.” The blue and ivory feet specifically associate with death for the
reader. However, Billy doesn’t explicitly draw these conclusions even though he
should be able to. Fitting with his character, Billy simply seems to not care.
He appears to think that death is not awful, in fact he excitedly characterizes
the corpse as something to see and says that the death of the hobo was “all
right somehow” (Vonnegut 148). Though he has experienced his entire life
before, he does not appear to draw the connections between his own blue and ivory feet
walking down the stairs and the feet of the dead hobo. And while this is
consistent with the Tralfamadorian ideas about death and time, it still
disturbs me a lot (which is Vonnegut’s point, I guess).
