Going, Going, Gone

Throughout Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut has often used one certain motif over and over again. At first, I thought it was Vonnegut just being a unique author with its constant recurrence, and he didn't feel the need to continue talking about the given topics. However, I now realize just what the significance behind the phrase actually is. I'm just slightly embarrassed that it took me until now just to realize what it meant. The phrase I'm referring to here is, of course, "So it goes."
I finally realized the significance of this phrase in Chapter 6 on page 140 after it was mentioned in the quote from Paul Lazzaro, "'And he'll pull out a gun and shoot his pecker off. The stranger'll let him think a couple of seconds about who Paul Lazzaro is and what life's gonna be like without a pecker. Then he'll shoot him once in the guts and walk away.' So it goes."
After reading that quote, it all started making sense. Vonnegut has been using "So it goes" throughout SH-5 to follow deaths throughout the book. This is Vonnegut's way of saying "There goes another life." Billy heard this phrase from the Tralfamadorians, who all view death as just another point in one's life. Death is not escapable; instead, every person's life just comes and goes.
After making my slowly processed realization that "So it goes" has a purpose, and just what that purpose is of signifying death, I continued to read the chapter and discovered my realization seems to be spot on. Here are a few more examples of "So it goes" throughout Chapter 6:

• "'In the war?' said Lazzaro. 'Yeah- I had a friend in the war. He's dead.' So it goes" (141). Yup, that fits my "So it goes" realization.
• "The United States of America has been Balkanized, has been divided into twenty petty nations so that it will never again be a threat to world peace. Chicago has been hydrogen-bombed by angry Chinamen. So it goes. It is all brand new" (142). If there was any doubt that a hydrogen bomb would entail at least a few deaths, the doubt has cleared with Vonnegut's remark of "So it goes." Yup, more death. (I wonder if the Cubs would win the World Series in that "brand new Chicago"... Yeah, I know, probably not, but I can dream.)
• "It is aimed at him from the darkened press box. In the next moment, Billy Pilgrim is dead. So it goes" (143). Death? Check. So it goes? Check.

Those are just 3 examples of the connection between "So it goes" and perishing. There are more examples of "So it goes" in the book and the chapter, but I'm too lazy to type them all out it would be too long of a list. I'm almost 100% certain that all of the rest of the examples also follow death, dying, or disease of some sort, so I'll leave the list at its current length.
I'm just really surprised it took me so long to realize the connection between "So it goes" and death. However, since I have now finally realized the connection, I will certainly continue to look for more connections as the story goes on.