How does Peter Balakian use imagery in Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir?

Imagery:

"The idea that I couldn't ask my grandmother questions anymore flashed through me like a cold current of terror. That she was no more. That there was a big empty space where she once pushed through the world with her quick step." -
"The Woman in Blue", p. 27

"In 1960 I hadn't even heard the phrase 'starving Armenians,' nor did I know that my ancestors were among the more than two million Armenians who, if they weren't killed outright, were marched into the deserts in 1915 and left to starve as they picked the seeds out of feces or sucked the blood on their own clothes."
"Tahn on Crabtree Lane", p. 53