So it goes.

   

     The book Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is a somewhat schizophrenic anti-war novel that was published in the late 1960's.  The book starts off as the writer describing certain things he experienced while writing this novel, and then in the next chapter actually delves into the true story. The story tells the tale of Billy Pilgrim, who served in the army during World War II and has a very distinct belief in a planet that he calls Tralfamadore. This book also has a very clear underlying theme: moments in life are more important than what people actually feel about those moments.

     One way that the the author expresses that feelings are unimportant is when he mentions an event that obviously had a lot of impact on a person's life, he never says how that person felt about it. He simply says "so it goes", a term that can very easily be synonymous with the term "life goes on". An example of this is when the book says "While Billy was recuperating in a hospital in Vermont, his wife accidentally died of carbon monoxide poisoning. So it goes." Billy probably loved his wife very much, but the narrator declines to mention how Billy felt about his wife's death. A very similar second example of this is when the book says, "Billy was given  an emergency furlough home because his father, a barber in Ilium, New York , was shot dead by a friend while they were out hunting deer. So it goes." So all in all that is one way that the author expresses that feelings are unimportant.

     In conclusion, the theme of this book is moments in life are more important than what people actually feel about those moments. But which one really is more important? In some ways, it really matters on the person. Feelings make us remember moments, but sometimes they are moments we don't want to remember. But feelings are also inevitable. So even though this author may find that feelings are less important, they will always be with him whether he likes it or not.