Metaphors are all around us in everyday speech; when someone says, "You're a rockstar," for example, it's a metaphor—because, sadly, you're not really a rockstar. It's just a more interesting way to say, "You're great!" So a metaphor is just one type of what you've probably always called a figure of speech, like when you call someone who's really boring a "stick in the mud" or a "wet blanket."
A metaphor is a tricky balancing act: if it's too similar to what you're describing, it won't be interesting. If it's too different from what you're describing, it won't make any sense.
It's also hard for a writer to come up with new and original metaphors; when everyone's already heard them a million times, they become uninteresting and what we call cliché—like all of the examples above! That's why Truman Capote's metaphors are so interesting. They fit their situations perfectly, and he made them up based on the way he saw the world.
Let's think about the elderly woman's "cartwheel" hat early in the story. It seems like a metaphor to us—a big, round hat like a cart's wheel—but in the 1950's, cartwheel was a common name for that particular type of hat. So to Truman Capote it wasn't really a metaphor. But, then, think about this: way back when those hats first came into style, their name began as a metaphor, because that's what those hats reminded somebody of! Language is always changing!
Have fun looking for metaphors! They're everywhere! And don't get confused if you see some metaphor-like figures of speech that have the words like or as in them. They're called similes—like the word similar—and they compare two things, using like or as. So instead of saying you are a rockstar, a simile would say you are like a rockstar.
Good luck!
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