Sympathy

"The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka, is dealing with whether the reader should or shouldn't sympathize with the protagonist, Gregor. He doesn't want the reader to sympathize with Gregor because the reader can't relate to Gregor's problems of turing into a bug.

"The cleaning of his room, which she now did always in the evenings, could not have been more hastily done. Streaks of dirt strected along the walls, here and there lay balls of dust and filth. At first Gregor used to station himself in some particularly corner when his sister arrived, in order to reproach her with it, so to speak. But he could have sat there for weeks without getting her to make any improvements; she could see the dirt as well as he did, but she simply made up her mind to leave it alone."

This passage is about how his own sister does not want to approach him because the sight of him upsets her. Because his sister cleans his room and he wants to talk to her but she ignores as he sits in the filthy side of the room. She doesn't even clean that side no matter how dirty it gets. So the feeling Gregor was feeling was probably lonely and hated. No one is left alone in their room and locked in it. She did not see him as her brother anymore but more as a bug, so she left him alone. Since his own mother can not stand the sight of her own son, no reader has experienced his own mother not love him. So we can not sympathize with the Gregor, as his own family does not appreciate him.