How does Jose Saramago use imagery in Blindness?

The imagery used in Chapter Eleven is brutal, ugly, and disturbing. The language used is violent, exact, and unrelenting in the portrayal of the vicious gang rape of the women. Throughout the night parties of several men simultaneously rape a single woman in various violent ways and the women are also degraded mentally and physically by beatings, taunting, and numerous other disgusting forced activities. The doctor's wife watches this happen to all of them and once again finds herself wishing that she were blind in order to avoid the repellent imagery.