A reoccurring saying throughout Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse- Five follows every mention of death throughout. Whether the death be personal, insignificant, general, or on a massive scale "So it goes" will always follow. This reoccurring saying reflects the Tralfamadorian philosophy of death that although a person may be dead at that specific moment, that person is still alive in other moments in their life. They move between these moments through time travel, revisiting moments and memories. The reoccurring phase also points out the tragedy of war and the inevitability of death.
The birds saying of "Poo-tee-weet" further communicates Vonnegut's lack of anything intellegent to say about war. The birds song, representing gibberish ends the book as Vonnegut further reinstates that he can not fully describe the terror of the bombing of Dresden. In the last line of the book, "Poo-tee-weet" is in the form of a question, allowing the reader to feel Vonnegut's confusion of how such a traumatic event could have taken place; as well as his confusion in how to describe it.
Blue and ivory feet are mentioned a few times within the novel. Vonnegut mentions blue and ivory feet is when he is in basement in the cold and when he waits for the Tralfamadorians to kidnap him. This particular choice of blue and ivory represents the thinness of the skin, further communicating the thin line between life and death.
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