Dreams
The very first line of narration the medium relates is the protagonist asserting, "I can remember some things upon that evening most distinctly, and others are like some vague, broken dreams." This is a common simile used to describe troubled memory. Here, however, the difficulty winds up being intensified when it is revealed that the person saying this is dead. One can imagine that remembering life for a dead person is very much like recalling a dream.
The Car
The owner of the car says, "I remember also asking Perkins, my chauffeur, how she had gone, and his saying that he thought she was excellent." The car in question is referred to several times using feminine pronouns. This is a common occurrence in both the literature and history of patriarchal rule which loves to view women as possessions to own and control. Thus, cars very quickly became metaphorical women as they earned not just pronouns but female names as the technology became more common.
Class Division
The upper class and wealthy protagonist observes that "one often does foolish things, and one has not always to pay the full price for them." The entire story can be interpreted as negative commentary on class division. The unspoken critique here in this metaphor is that only the rich never actually have to pay for their mistakes. It is also ironic in this case.
Speed
The entire story revolves around a high-speed crash in a car in which "The wheels were whirring like a high wind." This very simple simile may be an example of understatement. Although a wind can be powerful enough to cause great damage, the effect of this comparison is not one which explicitly foreshadows tragedy. The sound does convey the sensation of high speed, however.
More Dreams
Late in the story, the metaphorical imagery will return to the land of dreams. "At the present moment I was surprised to see him, but I was like a man in a dream, giddy and shaken and quite prepared to take things as I found them without questioning them." In this example, however, it is not a recollection. He is describing in the moment what feels like a dream. Perhaps not coincidentally, that moment is the very one in which he has moved from the living to the dead.
