What are some implementations and examples of the motif of death in Slaughterhouse-Five?

In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
uses repetition  and verbal irony (understatement and litote) to reveal that Billy
Pilgrim has experienced many deaths and that death is
inevitable.

Repetition:
Vonnegut repeats "So it goes" near the ends of episodes and chapters to
underscore that "death marches on."

Verbal
Irony (understatement): Vonnegut says, "So it goes."  Not only does time
go on, but so does death.  Also, Vonnegut says that Billy Pilgrim ‘‘has seen his own
death many times."  To say that a soldier of World War II and a survivor of the Dresden
massacre has seen death many times shows that, in fact, he has seen death so much that
he has become desensitized to
it.

Litote: "So it goes" is a
phrase that avoids saying what it really means: "it" equals "death."  This is a kind of
euphemism in which the author repeats it so much that he avoids making his narration
sound so depressing.