How does D. M. Thomas use imagery in The White Hotel?

The imagery is central to Europe during the 1940's. The primary imagery in the book is the white hotel. The hotel is by a green lake and is surrounded by mountains. There are a small tavern, a convent, and a church in the mountains. Most of the action in the white hotel takes place in the young couple's hotel room and on their balcony, but they also venture into the surrounding wilderness, the dining room of the hotel, and the billiard room. According to Freud, the white hotel symbolizes the mother's womb, but at the end of the book, the white hotel is at the Holy Land refugee camp where Lisa spends her afterlife.