How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
A few had given themselves up spontaneously, reduced to desperation by the vagabond life, or because they lacked the means to survive, or to avoid separation from a captured relation, or even—absurdly—"to be in conformity with the law" (1.5)
Primo identifies the absurdity of actually choosing to put oneself in danger in order to obey the law. He's also hitting us over the head with the supreme irony that the prisoners weren't comfortable with their "vagabond life." Little did they know that things were about to get horribly worse in the concentration camps.
Quote #2
Piero has mild enteritis, has been here for twenty days, and is quite happy, rested and growing fatter; he could not care less about the selections and has decided to stay in Ka-Be until the end of the winter, at all costs. His method consists of placing himself in line behind some authentic dysentery patient who offers a guarantee of success; when it is his turn he asks for his collaboration (to be rewarded with soup or bread), and if the latter agrees, and the nurse has a moment of inattention, he switches over the pots in the middle of the crowd, and the deed is done. Piero knows what he is risking, but it has gone well so far. (4.75)
Subverting the system usually require a person to go against the morals and ethics they might have held when they were free men. In this passage, we see how far a person can actually go. Piero steals excrement from dysentery patients in order to stay in Ka-Be, since that's the only thing that gives him some hope for survival.
Quote #3
Add to this that the old members of the camp have refined their senses to such a degree that, while still in their bunks, they are miraculously able to distinguish if the level is at a dangerous point, purely on the basis of the sound that the sides of the bucket make—with the result that they almost always manage to avoid emptying it. (5.23)
Why is emptying the bucket a possibly dangerous undertaking? Primo's frequent description of excrement is another indication of the abject misery the prisoners have to endure.