blue and ivory

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).