Hunter's prose is remarkably fluid and the novel, like all his others, is characterized by its smooth style. As one critic has pointed out, Hunter has a real eye, as well as ear, for dialogue.

That is, dialogue which scans well on the page. The novel, too, is realistically poetic. Hunter's descriptions of the city, of its atmosphere, and of the weather are evocative. His ability to call up the urban environment, which he would perfect in his later crime novels, is accomplished with precision and economy.

The narrative is also highly metaphoric and much of the novel's power comes from the social context created by the expansion of Hunter's vision into wider, contemporary cultural concerns. Through such narrative elements The Blackboard Jungle becomes more than just a novel of modern urban life and the decay of the cities after the second world war and is elevated to...