What do you think Beatrice, Ruth, and Tillie will be doing ten years after the play ends? What societal influences might contribute to the characters' futures? Consider such elements as increased opportunities for women, advances in scientific research, changes in the American family, and so on.

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds has often been compared to Tennessee Williams's play The Glass Menagerie. Both have been described as memory plays. How do memories influence the action in each play? Do the characters always relate past memories truthfully? If not, what insight does this provide into their current situation?

Tillie and Ruth are made fun of because they are growing up without a father. Does society have the same view of single-parent households today that it had in 1964? What changes in society have influenced the current view of a "typical American...