Her closest companions are the family's African American maid, Berenice Sadie Brown, and her six-year-old cousin, John Henry West.

But some critics think it is a mistake to view The Member of the Wedding as simply a coming of age novel—a "sweet momentary illumination of adolescence before the disillusion of adulthood,"[5] as it is sometimes regarded, or as Patricia Yaeger puts it, "an economical way of learning about the pangs of growing up.

Another critic, Margaret B. McDowell, has also stressed the role of Berenice Sadie Brown (and to a lesser extent John Henry West) in counter-pointing Frankie’s story.

These methods include the novel's tripartite structure, its depiction of personal difficulties with narrativizing, and "the refusal of dynamism, and the use of the literary devices of repetition and analepsis."

The cast included Ethel Waters, Julie Harris, and introduced Brandon deWilde, a seven-year-old second-grader at the time.

Waters, Harris, and deWilde reprised their stage roles, with Arthur Franz, Nancy Gates, and Dickie Moore joining the cast, for the 1952 film version The Member of the Wedding.

[12][13] Another unauthorized musical adaptation was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and produced by the University of Alabama at Birmingham's "Town and Gown Theater" in 1987.

[14] A 1982 television adaptation, directed by Delbert Mann, starred Pearl Bailey, Dana Hill and Howard E. Rollins, Jr.[15] A 1989 Broadway revival production with Roundabout Theatre (directed by Harold Scott, set design by Thomas Cariello) starred Esther Rolle as Berenice, Amelia Campbell as Frankie and Calvin Lennon Armitage as young John Henry.

[16] The 1997 film version, adapted by David W. Rintels and directed by Fielder Cook, starred Anna Paquin, Alfre Woodard, Corey Dunn and Enrico Colantoni.

[17] The Young Vic theatre in London produced the stage version of The Member of the Wedding in 2007, directed by Matthew Dunster.

Frankie Addams was played by Flora Spencer-Longhurst and Berenice Sadie Brown by Portia, a member of Philip Seymour Hoffman's LAByrinth Theater Company.