What metaphors are used in A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin?

In the section titled, The Winter Palace, Alessandro escapes from the palace on horseback and heads to the mountains, where he hopes to get to Italy. While he is running, the war ends with the collapse and capitulation of the Austrian empire. Escape seems to have become a metaphor for Alessandro's life. When he is not physically escaping from a bad situation, he seeks to escape through art. As a professional aesthetician, Alessandro seeks not so much to escape from himself but from the ugliness of the world.