What metaphors are used in Looking Backward: 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy?

There is a literal and metaphorical text of social hierarchy. In the first chapter of Looking Backward, Bellamy provides the parable of the coach as a means of describing the differences among the social classes of his time. Thus, the heart of Bellamy's concern for society is established and carried throughout the book as he explains how a nationalized system of commerce and a moral concern for each other could eliminate class divisions. He reiterates the abuses of the class system at the end of the book when he dreams of returning to the nineteenth century and once again observes the disparity of life between the squalor of poverty and the excesses of wealth.