The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947. It features another frustrated family, though here the interactions become violent.

Eugene O'Neill is also considered a major American playwright. He published Long Day's Journey into Night in 1956. It also features a family within which tensions are obvious, in part because of the alcohol abuse present in the characters.

A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry and first produced in 1959 presents the situation of a black family, each of whose members attempts to exercise choice for the good of the family and themselves individually.

The Bluest Eye, published by Toni Morrison in 1970, concerns a young African-American girl who loses touch with reality because of her life circumstances.

Elizabeth Bishop's poem, "In the Waiting Room," (1976) tells the story of a young girl at the moment when she realizes she is both an individual and part of a community.