He, throughout the story, was stepped on and was taken advantage of. This was perhaps unveiling Gregor's true self. Gregor lacked friends, failing to even accomplish intimacy with his own family. In short: his life was meaningless, his body merely an empty shell, similar to an insect's exoskeleton. The physical change, the metamorphosis, marks the falling of Gregor's veil; a chance for the world to see whom Gregor really is. Gregor, on the other, fails to comprehend the ignorance of the change, and only accepts the metamorphosis at face value. The thought that Gregor must work to provide for the family was set in stone within his mind. However, as Gregor deteriorated, the family's state of affairs tended to improve. .
While I was reading "The Metamorphosis, " I was struck by a fascinating and philosophical thought in regards to human perception: we are blind until we are shown. As long as Gregor was human, he was, with no hesitation, the provider for the family. After his transformation, his entire family became blind to the fact that he was once the provider. Kafka was trying to alert us to the fact that we are living amongst illusions. We act based on conscious and subconscious thoughts. However, we believe what we want to believe. We cannot force our beliefs on other. Even after his transformation, despite his insect qualities, Gregor's continuing love for his family and particularly, his sister's music, demonstrates more humanity than any other character. The lodgers "had been disappointed in their expectation of hearing good or enjoyable violin-playing, that they had had more than enough of the performance and only our of courtesy suffered a continued disturbance of their peace " (412). This is an ironic example of Gregor's love for his sister's music, whereas the lodgers were disappointed by the performance. Gregor being an insect and having this compassion for her music validates more humanity than any other person in the room.