Gregor's family is symbolic of a repressive structure that inhibits Gregor's every thought and action. When Gregor gets up in the morning to get ready for work and finds that he has been transformed into a cockroach, he muses about how maybe he should go to work late and get fired, but then realizes that he can't because "if [he ] would not have held back because of [his] parents, [he] would have stopped long ago” (Kafka 8). This quote shows how the family has immense power over Gregor which causes him to transform into a cockroach which symbolizes that he has become alienated, is no longer free and has lost his sense of identity. Gregor's life revolves around his work. Gregor never goes out, he doesn't have a girlfriend and the only thing he's interested in is work. All this shows that Gregor has lost track of what is happening in the outside world and has isolated himself from it. He is extremely consumed with work and has no time to think about other things. Gregor