William Shakespeare's tragedy, King Lear, tells the story of a king who divides his realm among his daughters, only to realize they valued his riches more than him. In his old age, he finds himself forsaken. Akira Kurosawa, a Japanese director, reimagined this tale in his 1985 film Ran, setting it in ancient Japan with a similar conflict over inheritance. American author Jane Smiley also adapted the Lear narrative in her 1991 novel, A Thousand Acres.

John Updike's 1960 novel Rabbit, Run follows a disillusioned salesman who leaves his alcoholic wife and child in search of "freedom," only to return feeling guilty and still unfulfilled.

William Faulkner's character Quentin Compson, who appears in his novels The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!, ends his life after coming to terms with the inherent evil in humanity.

In his popular series, Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin presents heartfelt and realistic snapshots of the homosexual community in San Francisco.

Brett Harvey's 1993 work, The Fifties: A Women's Oral History, recounts the experiences of various women reflecting on their coming of age in 1950s America.