Safe Isolation
The author uses imagery to ironically foreshadow the violence that is about to explode all over a bucolic setting. "Sunlight shimmers on the leaves of the trees magnanimously lording over the small cabin, the lonely red dot on the southern shore of Gaudet Lake." The imagery constructs a feeling of isolation but within a safe atmosphere. Shimmering sunlight amid big protective trees creates a sense of safety. That safety is juxtaposed against the lonely red dot which subtly indicates a bleeding wound.
Colors
Imagery is used to describe the setting again near the end of the tale in a much different way. "Its color changes the longer he watches; the sky becomes more gray than purple, and then more black than gray, and another chance to more purple than both colors, then a color he’s never seen before and could only describe as being more purple than purple." By this point in the narrative, very bad things have happened. Malevolence has corrupted the bucolic setting. The world seems to have gone crazy overnight. This imagery presenting the perspective of the sky as darkening into an unnatural state of purple reflects that bizarre upending of expectations and normalcy.
Weak Gods
The narrative is about, at least on one level, apocalyptic religious insanity. "She has this image of his god as all the black empty space between stars when you look up at the night sky, and this god of collected blankness is big enough to swallow the moon, the earth, the sun, the Milky Way, and big enough it couldn’t possibly care about anyone or anything." The outlier in the bunch is here expressing through imagery exactly the type of all-powerful god whom logic seems to dictate would need no help from puny delusional fools. The imagery attests to the comprehensive power to swallow heavenly bodies yet for some reason is a being not powerful enough to bring about the end of humanity without assistance from true believers of questionable character and ability.
Violence
Into this serene and peaceful situation stomps visceral and ugly violence. "There’s a tree-snapping-and-falling crack and crunch. Redmond’s sternum and rib cage collapse under the weight and force of the anvil-sized block of metal, which punches clear through to the spine." This imagery is used to intensify the brutality of the violence that erupted upon the scene with the arrival of dangerous strangers. The snap and crack and crunching sound of the attack is palpable and vividly creates a powerful sensation immediately understood. The reference to the anvil only serves to add to its resonance of size and weight.
