How does the author use imagery in the novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland?

Walker uses naturalistic imagery to portray the way that blacks are dehumanized by the racist social system. Brownfield's slovenly eating habits, for example, cause his eldest daughter Ornette to think of him. as a "hog." At one point, after he verbally abuses Mem, she reflects that he behaves "just like an old dog." And Brownfield observes that Mem resembles "a skinny balding gorilla." He calls her an "ugly black hound," and she accuses him of treating her "like a no-count dog" for nine