How does David Mitchell use imagery in Cloud Atlas?

Examples of Imagery:

"Glass and peace alike betray proof of fragility under repeated blows." Adam Ewing, "The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing," page 12.

Power, time, gravity, love. The forces that really kick trash are all invisible.

Imagine a bleeding calf is thrashing in a shark-infested shallows. What to do--stay out of the water or try to stay the jaws of the sharks? Such was our choice.