John Updike's "Rabbit" series—Rabbit, Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981), and Rabbit at Rest (1990)—offers commentary on American society in the last part of the twentieth century, by focusing on the life of suburban, upper-class protagonist, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom.

In Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" (1819), the title character falls asleep and awakens years later to discover that much has changed during his "nap." Rip's entire experience, like Neddy Merrill's, has been interpreted as a dream.

Cheever's The Brigadier and the Golf Widow (1964) examines the themes of American affluence and suburbia.

J. D. Salinger's classic, Catcher in the Rye (1951), is the story of one young man's coming of age and search for truth in a world full of "phonies.