Chapter 2 - So it goes

  "The regimental chaplain's assistant had been killed in action. So it goes."  Each a time death, dying, and mortality occur, Vonnegut accompanies the account with the phrase "so it goes."  In other words - so it continues.  "It" represents life which continues even though death has taken place.  I believe Vonnegut uses this phrase as a comic relief, continuing both the story and his satiric voice.  It is first revealed in chapter two that Billy Pilgrim received the phrase from the creatures of Tralfamadore.  "Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes."  Billy believes a person will always be alive in the past, so their death does not matter.  When he becomes 'unstuck in time,' he travels to different moments of  his life and experiences them.  The people in these experiences are alive in his memory, so their current state has no importance.  "All moments past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist."  Billy uses the insights he gained he from the Tralfamadorians to see how permanent all moments are and looks on them as he pleases.