{"id":"01KG0M2AAQAR8B4X3938TBVRPD","cid":"bafkreibfbc6vl4oqjnrbmk6dmbfcfrgvsb7z3vhl55tfjlqs75lolbkgq4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1121,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T20:59:33.331Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 8","source_file":"01KG0K71QM71M0G20X5B9DHB1X","start_line":1061,"text":"forget his past when he had still been human. He had come very close to\r\nforgetting, and it had only been the voice of his mother, unheard for\r\nso long, that had shaken him out of it. Nothing should be removed;\r\neverything had to stay; he could not do without the good influence the\r\nfurniture had on his condition; and if the furniture made it difficult\r\nfor him to crawl about mindlessly that was not a loss but a great\r\nadvantage.\r\n\r\nHis sister, unfortunately, did not agree; she had become used to the\r\nidea, not without reason, that she was Gregor’s spokesman to his\r\nparents about the things that concerned him. This meant that his\r\nmother’s advice now was sufficient reason for her to insist on removing\r\nnot only the chest of drawers and the desk, as she had thought at\r\nfirst, but all the furniture apart from the all-important couch. It was\r\nmore than childish perversity, of course, or the unexpected confidence\r\nshe had recently acquired, that made her insist; she had indeed noticed\r\nthat Gregor needed a lot of room to crawl about in, whereas the\r\nfurniture, as far as anyone could see, was of no use to him at all.\r\nGirls of that age, though, do become enthusiastic about things and feel\r\nthey must get their way whenever they can. Perhaps this was what\r\ntempted Grete to make Gregor’s situation seem even more shocking than\r\nit was so that she could do even more for him. Grete would probably be\r\nthe only one who would dare enter a room dominated by Gregor crawling\r\nabout the bare walls by himself.\r\n\r\nSo she refused to let her mother dissuade her. Gregor’s mother already\r\nlooked uneasy in his room, she soon stopped speaking and helped\r\nGregor’s sister to get the chest of drawers out with what strength she\r\nhad. The chest of drawers was something that Gregor could do without if\r\nhe had to, but the writing desk had to stay. Hardly had the two women\r\npushed the chest of drawers, groaning, out of the room than Gregor\r\npoked his head out from under the couch to see what he could do about\r\nit. He meant to be as careful and considerate as he could, but,\r\nunfortunately, it was his mother who came back first while Grete in the\r\nnext room had her arms round the chest, pushing and pulling at it from\r\nside to side by herself without, of course, moving it an inch. His\r\nmother was not used to the sight of Gregor, he might have made her ill,\r\nso Gregor hurried backwards to the far end of the couch. In his\r\nstartlement, though, he was not able to prevent the sheet at its front\r\nfrom moving a little. It was enough to attract his mother’s attention.\r\nShe stood very still, remained there a moment, and then went back out\r\nto Grete.\r\n\r\nGregor kept trying to assure himself that nothing unusual was\r\nhappening, it was just a few pieces of furniture being moved after all,\r\nbut he soon had to admit that the women going to and fro, their little\r\ncalls to each other, the scraping of the furniture on the floor, all\r\nthese things made him feel as if he were being assailed from all sides.\r\nWith his head and legs pulled in against him and his body pressed to\r\nthe floor, he was forced to admit to himself that he could not stand\r\nall of this much longer. They were emptying his room out; taking away\r\neverything that was dear to him; they had already taken out the chest\r\ncontaining his fretsaw and other tools; now they threatened to remove\r\nthe writing desk with its place clearly worn into the floor, the desk\r\nwhere he had done his homework as a business trainee, at high school,\r\neven while he had been at infant school—he really could not wait any\r\nlonger to see whether the two women’s intentions were good. He had\r\nnearly forgotten they were there anyway, as they were now too tired to\r\nsay anything while they worked and he could only hear their feet as\r\nthey stepped heavily on the floor.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 8"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG0KZ67K50CQT3J3ZW1G4SAK","peer_label":"Chapter Content","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG0K71QM71M0G20X5B9DHB1X","peer_label":"metamorphoses.txt","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG0M2AAW2GM9DCBDTD82CBE7","peer_label":"Chunk 7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG0M2AAG44S8WC1N52999PBR","peer_label":"Chunk 9","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-27T20:59:33.946Z","ts":"2026-01-27T20:59:34.780Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}