Journal #2

Chapter 2. On the Bottom

"But men are rarely logical when their own fate is at stake; on every
occasion, they prefer the extreme positions... The two classes of pessimists and
optimists are not so clearly defined, however, not because there are many
agnostics, but because the majority without memory or coherence, drift between
the two extremes, according to the moment and the mood of the person they happen to meet. (p.36)

In chapter 2, Primo Levi describes how extreme people become depending on the circumstances under which they are situated. According to him, there is no clear boundary between pessimists and optimists, because people drift between the two, as they experience different experiences and moods.

This seems to depict human behavior under extreme cirumstances. When people are driven out of their home and of what they are used to, they seem to lose composition and become extreme. They have no fixed principles, becuase they have lost their faith. This leads them to lose their own personalities and human characteristics, which probably is one of the worst consequences of living in Auschwitz.