Which characters did you find particularly optimistic? Which were most pessimistic? Did attitude help or hurt these characters? Where do you rate yourself and why?

Adam says that he and his students separated themselves into "those whose glasses were half-full, whose glasses were half-empty, whose cups would always overflow." Which characters did you find particularly optimistic? Which were most pessimistic? Did attitude help or hurt these characters? On a scale of one to ten, with one being the most pessimistic and ten being the most optimistic, where do you rate yourself and why?

I think Adam was optimistic. He always looked for the good -"but i know I've been fortunate even in circumstances I might have once found impossible to see as fortunate - sometimes there's tea - we have a toilet that flushes - we're alive."

In the middle of terrible poverty and starvation, he taught poetry - as in beauty is truth, truth beauty that's all you know on earth and all you need to know etc.

When his brother urged him to leave before the Nazi's took over, he declined never believing they would do what they did. So, in that - his optimism did not serve him well.

I think Szifra wanted to be an optimist - initially insisting that the British and U.S. would save them. But she eventually realized the futility of that hope and sacrificed herself to save her brothers.

I am mostly an optimist, but our current government scares me - prosecuting those who threaten their power while allowing and abetting other significant crime and violence that they apparently believe contributes to their continued power, lying about policies that hurt us while shifting blame to their political enemies for the damage they've done, silencing social media and people who speak against them, pitting groups against each other to convince people they are oppressed and only the current government can save them by going after the oppressors. Yes, it is not that different than Nazi Germany in the beginning.

I feel that Adam was the most optimistic, even at the end as he shepherds two children through the perils of escape from the ghetto. He truly believed that the world would want to know the stories behind the walls of the Warsaw ghetto. It is tragic that so many of these human stories have been lost.

I actually felt like the children were the most optimistic. They kept sneaking out to find food and supplies. They wanted their families to live and took a huge risk every time they left. They did not understand, perhaps ,the gravity of their situation,so they kept trying to help.
The most pessimistic was Sala's husband. He had given up on his marriage( I thought he had to know about Sala and Adam) and he continually mourned for his mother. Was she really more important to him than his family? That grief clouded his judgment and behavior towards his children and wife.

Adam was the most optimistic, in large part because of his naivete. The author does an exquisite job illustrating how profoundly shocking he found what was happening around and to him because, of course, no moral person could anticipate the atrocities of which the Nazis proved themselves capable.

Szifra was perhaps the least optimistic because she was so full of anger and determination. She was rightly outraged by what she had endured and was continuing to experience, and she loved her family fiercely which is why she was intent on protecting them. She placed no faith in the Allies coming to their rescue, but believe it was up to her to find a way out. She was a clever, intelligent girl but, tragically, just a girl and in so many ways even more naive that Adam.

Sala was in some ways the most heartbreaking character in the book. The author demonstrates how her emotions run the gamut from despair to hope which is, of course, characteristic of a mother. Because no mother can believe that all is lost when it comes to their children. Sala had to continue living and display optimisism for her children, even as the world in which she lived became a darker and darker place, and the daily struggle to survive became more onerous. Ultimately, she did what any mother would do: she sacrificed everything for her children so that they could have the future she could not give them. That is the ultimate display of optimism, in my opinion.

I agree that the children were the most optimistic. Despite the hunger, the cold and the cruelty, they looked forward to a better future. They made a game of survival and refused to be cowed by their enemies. Youth tends to be optimistic: “the sun will come up tomorrow!”

The members of Oneg Shabbat were pessimistic about their own futures so they recorded their experiences for those who would follow them. This seems very sad but courageous, to me.

I tend to be an optimist, but I wonder if that would continue under such privation.