consider elie's thoughts when he contemplates the idea of dying & not existing in page 86.why does elie's mind wander to the topic? given what he has gone through,should he be thinking about that?

It should not be surprising that Elie is thinking about death considering he is so close to it for most to the novel. Elie has a lot of time to think about it as he performs various jobs in the camp while his fellow Jews die all around him. Even though his thoughts wander, he always comes back to the theme of death. Yes, I can't think of what else but death one might consider in the Nazi death camps.