Lessing masterfully develops the careful balance between honest, outright dialogue between the characters and instinctual reactions more often exhibited through body language that depict the eventual breakdown of any group that tries to maintain solidarity. Most often readers are told how Alice sizes up someone to determine what they are trying to hide, particularly how their dialect unwittingly reveals their upbringing. In a conversation with Comrade Andrew, the narrative moves from describing the interaction to Alice's thoughts: They stared at each other. Across a gulf.

Not of ideology, but of temperament, of experience. She knew, from how he had said, 'there is nothing wrong with a comfortable life,' that he felt none of the revulsion she did. On the contrary, he would like such a life. She knew this about him; how? She did not know how she knew what she did about people. She just did...