What metaphors are used in In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried by Amy Hempel?

Symbolic in the story's Southern California setting is the idea that the narrator's situation is merely a play or a television show in which she is acting. The hospital, which is near Hollywood, is likened to the one on the television series "Marcus Welby, MD," and a camera guards the sick woman's room. Conscious that she is being filmed, the narrator states "I had my audience," in further recognition of the metaphor. Her tales about insignificant things take on the aura of a performance. "Off camera," she says, further painting a portrait of California, "there is a beach across the street."