In the closing chapter, the reader learns of the 75 acres of sand melted into glass and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. How does the glass sea serve to elucidate the consequences of this military action? Are the descriptions of the beauty of the desert sand glass jarring, given the implications?

How do Philip Gordon and Terry Gordon’s opposing points of view on the use of atomic warfare establish the for and against arguments that must have been taking place in the office of Harry Truman in 1945? With whom do you agree?

Describe how the recurring motif of science unites the story’s characters, including Dewey and Suze, Dewey and Terry, Dewey and Papa, and Suze with her parents.