How does Claire Messud use imagery in The Emperor's Children?

Imagery:

"They had all seemed witty and he'd felt as though he were slightly deaf, or listening to a language he knew only imperfectly, as though he were missing phrases, references, piecing together a brightly colored, impressionistic whole from only partial information."

"Was this what it meant to grow up, this vast loneliness? And like her anger in the restaurant - that beautifully somber place, now forever spoiled for her - she could control the feeling, push it to one side, just as she could brush away the tears before the lights were turned back on; but she did not know if the force of it would ever abate."