How does Thomas Keneally use imagery in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith?

Examples of Imagery:

"He had been a policeman for half and hour yet now wanted to commit murder. He was more officially a black now than Tabidgi or Mort: a registered, accredited, uniformed black man; more deeply, more damagingly black than ever." Chapter 5, p. 35

"Now he worked automatically, without aim. Work was a sedative for a man with a magic uncle bent on liquor, a lying wife, a bastard child; all within his walls." Chapter 7, p. 68