What metaphors are used in Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris?

Much of the narrative is a metaphor for abandonment. Abandonment can take many different forms. There is the obvious physical abandonment that happens when a husband leaves his wife and begins to live at another residence. Of course, it can be the wife who leaves the husband and abandons him. An added dimension which increases is damage is if one spouse takes all the couple's money and assets and leaves the other without any means of support.