Final answer:
The family's decision to use Gregor's room for excess furniture symbolizes their emotional detachment from him and demonstrates a physical and emotional barrier that they are placing between themselves and Gregor.
Step-by-step explanation:
The family starts to put excess furniture into Gregor's bedroom as a reflection of their emotional detachment and shifting priorities after Gregor's transformation. His room becomes a storage space, indicating how his importance in the family has diminished. The furniture's accumulation in his space suggests a barrier, both physically and emotionally, between Gregor and his family. The fact that the family no longer sees the room as part of their living space but rather as a convenient dumping ground for inharmonious furniture further emphasizes their disregard for Gregor's existence.
In literature, such acts often symbolize the changing dynamics within a family or household. In this case, the use of Gregor's room as a storage area reflects the family's adaptation to life without him as they once knew him. It also serves as a stark reminder of the family's unconscious, or conscious, effort to isolate Gregor even more from their world.