In war there is always one constant. Death is inevitable in war. Death can be a traumatic experience, especially if someone has witnessed it. In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut creatively portrays how war traumatizes and desensitizes people. Two motifs that appear repeatedly throughout the book are the phrases “so it goes” and “blue and ivory.” Vonnegut uses motifs to show how war alters people's view of death. The phrase "so it goes" is the most commonly used phrase in Vonnegut's novel. The phrase appears every time we talk about death. The phrase "blue and ivory" is used many times when Vonnegut writes about a corpse or Billy's bare feet. An example where the phrase "so it goes" and "blue and ivory" can be found is when Billy encounters a dead drifter he had met while stuck in a train car as a prisoner of war. Vonnegut describes the hobo by saying, “Someone had taken his boots. Her bare feet were blue and ivory. Somehow it was okay, the fact that he was dead. That's how it goes." The phrase “so it goes” is used in this quote exactly the same way it is used every other time it appears in the novel. Vonnegut uses the phrase casually and casually. “That's the way it is” is used as a phrase meaning that something doesn't matter, or that's just the way it is and you can't change the situation. Vonnegut incorporates this random phrase to show readers that war gives people this mentality. This mentality is shown in Billy when he says “Somehow it was okay, he was dead. That's how it goes." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIn war, death is so common that it becomes random and predictable. War desensitizes people to view unnecessary killings as a normal occurrence. The phrase “blue and ivory” describes the hobo's feet. When people think of a dead body, the image is usually a person with pale bluish skin. Vonnegut uses this motif as imagery to give the reader dark images of death. But Vonnegut also uses the phrase to describe Billy's feet, which is very much alive. On Billy's daughter's wedding night, Billy gets out of bed because he can't sleep. When Billy stands up, he looks at his feet, “they were ivory and blue.” Vonnegut uses this phrase to describe the living and the dead because he is trying to point out that in war there is no difference between the living and the dead. War makes people believe that life and death are equally the same thing. Vonnegut tries not to distinguish between the living and the dead because in war it's the same thing. Vonnegut uses the motif “poo-tee-weet?” to show how war is so traumatizing and horrible that it cannot be put into words. The phrase "poo-tee-weet?" a few times throughout the book. In the first chapter Vonnegut tells readers that he was unable to write clearly about his experiences in Dresden. He writes about the Dresden massacre saying, “It is so short and confusing and jarring, ... because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre, and there always is, except for birds. And what do the birds say? Everything there is to say about a massacre, things like 'poo-tee-weet?'” Something like the Dresden massacre cannot be put into words because it is so traumatizing. Vonnegut says the massacre is "short, confusing and tinkling", similar to the novel's sporadic time travel, quirky characters and Tralfamadorians. The phrase "poo-tee-weet?" it clearly shows the confusion and shock people feel after a massacre. Even the birds don't understand. The birds ask a question rather than make a statement because they also don't understand the slaughter. Vonnegut.