So it goes... Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist in Kurt Vonnegut's masterpiece, ""Slaughterhouse Five,"" uttered these words. The novel follows Pilgrim's journey through Dresden, Germany, the site of the infamous World War II fire bombings by the United States. The phrase indicates the transition from one chapter of life to another, in a particularly callous way.
The infamy Pilgrim witnessed all around him utterly desensitized him. Vonnegut is writing from experience, for he was stationed in Germany when the bombing began and was one of seven American prisoners of war to survive, huddling in a meat locker called Slaughterhouse 5. Never has a book captured the horror and injustice of the attack like Vonnegut's work. In grisly detail, he describes the death of more than 100,000 civilians.
Vonnegut died last Thursday at the age of 84. His legacy in American literature is pervasive and permanent, combining styles and themes never thought compatible in an effortless and beautiful manner. Science fiction, politics and satire formed a powerful triumvirate of truth.
Many compared him to Mark Twain, in his complete contempt for government and sardonic writing style. Americans will too easily fall back into complacency, taking our freedoms and rights for granted—Vonnegut in that sense was the ideal American.
As a constantly dissenting citizen, he always did his best to hold the government accountable. Vonnegut shook the foundation of American society with his words, making the reader contemplate their assumptions through an often purposefully convoluted message.
Vonnegut's brilliance did not come without a cost, and he struggled with depression his entire life. The atrocities of Dresden may have been a muse for his masterpiece, but they were also a mire for his soul. Vonnegut claimed Dresden had no effect on his writing or who he was, but he clearly battled with the subject for the remainder of his days.
After his attempted suicide in 1984, he decided he would focus on his more passive route to death. Since he was young, Vonnegut smoked Pall Mall cigarettes, which he gave the euphemism ""death sticks."" Being the sarcastic man that he was, more than once Vonnegut claimed he was going to sue Pall Mall cigarettes for failing to give him the cancer that the warning levels indicate.
Vonnegut actually lived to an old age, and he felt like his life was dragging on. He once told the Associated Press, ""When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life; old age is more like a semicolon."" While that may be true, Vonnegut's long life enabled him to expand his influence into a new generation of people, including contemporary college students. His life was a link to the past and served as a reminder that the atrocities of our predecessors are much more current than we think.
Alas, one of America's greatest writers and citizens is now gone. We can take heart in that since this is what he really wanted: a final peace after a long and harrowing life.
Vonnegut may be gone from this world, but his impact will never be. Millions of people around the world will read his satirical stories of science, ethics and politics. Billy Pilgrim will continue his journey through the minds of those reading his story, and in that, Vonnegut will endure forever. What else can be said when another great American leaves our midst? One thing is for sure, Vonnegut himself would have said, ""So it goes.""
