How does Elizabeth Gilbert use imagery in Stern Men?

Sexual references are largely an underground current in Elizabeth Gilbert's novel Stern Men, but sexuality explodes into the foreground in Chapter 11, when Ruth Thomas, who has long had her eye on big and silent Owney Wishnell, goes off into the woods with him in a drunken state. In this instance, the images presented by the author are ripe with sensuality, graphic imagery, and lewd talk.