This passage describes Gregor’s slow change in attitude towards his predicament as he begins to accept his physical, insect condition.  Gregor is undoubtedly still human in mind; in the first sentence, he does “not want to show himself at the window, if only out of consideration for his parents,” a highly un-animal like thought.  His love for his parents and for his family is Gregor’s last hold onto humanity.  He puts their feelings before his own, having never truly focused on his own worries, desires, or cares as of this passage.

            Kafka displays Gregor’s discomfort as he uses words such as “couldn’t,” “could hardly,” “stopped,” and “the slightest” to describe Gregor’s initial state of being.  In a physically confined area that stops movement and progression, Gregor is basically trapped in his room.  He slowly gives up human habits such as “lying still…at night” and finding pleasure in “eating” in favor of more insect-like behavior.  This is exemplified in Gregor’s new hobby of “crawling crisscross over the walls and the ceiling.”  Interestingly, Kafka structures the sentence describing Gregor’s pleasure while hanging from the ceiling with many semi-colons, piling one phrase against another to form a long, almost rhythmic sentence.  The combination of these many phrases creates a feeling of lightness, in addition to reflecting Gregor’s own thought process (which seems dreamy at this point in the passage).  This syntax adds to the mood of the novel and the characterization of Gregor. 

            There is a sharp contrast between the diction used to describe Gregor’s discomforts and that used to detail his new favorite activity (“did not want to,” “could hardly put up with” VS. “liked,” “could breathe more freely,” “almost happy absent-mindedness”).  Indeed, Gregor’s voice (that is inherently intertwined with the limited omniscient view narrative) changes tone as he describes, with child-like enthusiasm, the act of hanging. 

            Although the reader finds that Gregor truly loves this new hobby of his, it is also clear that Gregor’s enjoyment reflects his new “bug” nature, rather than the human thought and feeling that he still holds inside his mind.  This also pushes the contrast between the two sentences in this passage.  Yet, there is a similarity between the two conditions that Gregor has so carefully delineated.  In both situations, Gregor is motionless, hanging in air, physically trapped and unable to move (to feel, to live) because of what occurred to him.  His insect body has hampered his existence, but not his mind or feelings.