How does Laurel Thatcher Ulrich use imagery in A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812?

Imagery:

"Spinning, like nursing, was a universal female occupation, a 'domestic' duty, integrated into a complex system of neighborly exchange."

"Twenty years after settling in Maine, Martha and Ephraim were still pioneering, she riding through driving rain to deliver babies in flea-infested cabins in the second and third miles of settlement, he swatting mosquitoes and black flies on uncharted swamps and streams from Damariscotta Pond to the Penobscot."