For the first two weeks, his parents had no intention of returning to him, and he often heard his sister fully approving of what he was doing.
Until then, he had often been angry with his sister because she seemed like a useless little girl, but now, while his father and mother were often cleaning his sister's room, he would wait in front of Gregory's room, and as soon as he came out, he would immediately ask what the room was like, what Gregory had eaten, and how he had behaved this time.
And I had to tell you in great detail whether or not I saw any improvement.
--- p.44

The rotten apple stuck in his back, the festering edges covered with soft dust, he barely noticed.
I recalled my family with emotion and love.
His thoughts on his disappearance were perhaps even more resolute than his sister's.
He remained in this state of empty, peaceful contemplation until the clock on the clock tower struck three in the morning.
He also saw his son-in-law begin to brighten.
Then, without his knowledge, his head fell very weakly, and his last breath escaped weakly from his nostrils.
--- p.73

'Look, it's dead, it's lying there, it's really dead!'
The couple sat up in their master bed with a start, trying to recover from the surprise of the maid's surprise attack before they could understand what she was saying.
Then the couple, each on their own side, hurriedly got out of bed, Mr. Sleep with the blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and Mrs. Sleep in her nightgown.
So they entered Gregor's room.
In the meantime, as the boarders came in, the door to the living room where Grete slept also opened.

She was fully clothed, as if she had not slept at all, and her pale face seemed to confirm it.
'Dead?' asked the sleeping lady, looking at the housekeeper, though she could see everything for herself and know without even looking.
'That's what I think,' said the housekeeper, pushing Gregor's body a little further to the side with a broom as proof.
Mrs. Sleep moved as if to keep the broom from being pushed out, but did not do so.
"Okay," said Mr. Jamja.

'Now we can give thanks to God,' he said, and the three women followed suit.
--- pp.73-74

'Ah!' said the rat.
'The world is getting smaller every day.
At first, I was scared because it was so wide, but as I kept running, I was happy to finally see the walls in the distance on both sides.
But these long walls close in on both sides so quickly that I find myself in the last room, and there's a trap in the corner, and I'm running into it.' - 'You just have to change the direction you're running,' said the cat, catching the mouse and eating it.
--- p.173

But instead, he is just struggling helplessly.
He is still struggling through the chambers of the innermost palace, from which he will never escape, and even if he does, it will be of no use, for he will have to fight to get down the stairs, and even if he wins the fight, it will be of no use, for he will have to pass through the courtyard, and beyond the courtyard there is a second palace surrounding it, and more stairs, more palaces, and so on, until, after thousands of years, he finally bursts through the outermost gate—but never, never can that happen—and only then will the royal capital, the center of the world, its high sedimentary deposits, unfold before his eyes.

--- p.190