Dreams In The Metamorphosis

I think it is interesting how Kafka opens the novel by assuring us that Gregor has just emerged from troubled edreams but the rest of the novel proceeds in a very surreal dreamlike fashion. I think the biggest example of this is the way so many things behave exactly the way he expects them too, even when it makes very little sense that they would do so. For example the manger showing up at his house even though he is only slightly late at that point. Furthermore no one ever questions the means by which Gregor has been transformed and tries to get a doctor or scientist involved, they are all as completely accepting of the total absurdity of the situation as Gregor is. I think this seems very dreamlike because in dreams no one ever question the total strangeness of the situation in mars. My bus driver from second grade never wonders exactly why we are on a hot air balloon, he just goes along with it the same way I do. The whole family never wonders why he's a cockroach and in fact they view it the same way Gregor does, they are ashamed of him as he is ashamed of himself and they view him primarily as a provider for the family which is similar to the way Gregor views himself. His first thought is that he will no longer be able to work and right away they begin to plan for what they will do now that Gregor is unable to.
        I am not entirely sure of the significance of the contrast between the dreamlike way all the characters think so similarly and Kafka's reassurance that this is not in fact a dream at the beginning of the novel. It is probably just to make the novel seem more surreal and strange and to convey the fact that this reality is just as horrible as Gregor imagines it.