And So It Goes (The Life of Billy Pilgrim)

Even though Billy´s life is full of traumatic or unusual experiences, Vonnegut narrates his life´s most important event with such carelessness it amazes me. The author also repeats the phrase "So it goes" many times, after explaining that the Tralfamdarians used it to as a motto to overcome death, since they had the capability to see four dimensions. This ability made them see the object/place in all the "states" it had been, so death was nonexistent for them. Thus, everything is related in terms of cause and effect.

Billy Pilgrim does remind me to a movie. The film "Forrest Gump" is kind of ironic, because it shows a man who lives an incredible life because of sheer luck. Forrest meets the president, teaches Elvis Presley how to dance, is honored as an All-American, and lastly, goes to the Vietnam War. Both main characters seem goofy and unaware, and surprisingly survive war, innocent without realizing.

Another thought I´d like to share is how Billy's should have kept his flying saucers, Tralfamadore, and aliens to himself. The accident which he survived may have affected his logical thinking, but even today, people don't respect these thoughts and I consider them his excuses for not wanting to live, or maybe to make his life more interesting. If I were his daugther and knew my father was acting this way, I´d probably have tried to suppress these crazy ideas from being published. As a last resort I'd send him to th geriatric, where his wife resides.

Lastly, I´d like to share why I feel frustrated against Billy´s attitude. I believe he is scared to live. He suffered the loss of his wife and son, an accident which probably affected his ability to think and WWII, only to give up and play the victim´s role. He was given another chance to live (dodging bullets, surviving accidents, etc.), so he should have made the best of it.