Has the daughter's role changed? In the early 1940s, daughters were expected to be at home helping their mother. He had to learn the domestic responsibilities of cleaning, cooking and caring for the "man of the house". She was poorly educated and always respected her elders. Now fast forward fifty years and we have daughters who seem to disobey the expectations instilled in them. The role of daughters has changed from that of housewife and child-bearer to a more educated and involved lifestyle. We can see this change in the daughters' roles through the comparison between a play and a novel. Laura Wingfield in the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, is an emotional character who feels pressure from her mother and society to fulfill the roles of a traditional daughter. Fifty years later there is Grace Graves, a young daughter in the novel The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans, who is described as immature and far from traditional. The daughters began to have choices and not duties in society. Parenting played an important role in the daughters of the novel and the theater. Only her mother, Amanda, raised Laura because her father abandoned them. Having a single mother and no father figure shocked Laura. She has to cope with the pressure exerted by her mother, who wants to get her married as soon as possible. Amanda tries to motivate Laura into marriage by bragging about her past; “One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain, your mother received seventeen gentlemen! Because sometimes there weren't enough chairs to accommodate them all. We had to send the black man to bring some folding chairs from the parsonage” (303). The importance of the relationship between Amanda and Laura is central to... middle of paper....... In contrast, Grace who doesn't seem to care about respect. He hates his mother and always finds refuge with his father. When Annie has had enough of Grace struggling, she hatches a plan to bring some joy back into her life. The plan works and Grace appears to have matured while at the ranch. In the play, Laura never raises her voice at Amanda, which seems to be the norm in the early 1940s. In the novel Grace disrespects Annie, and it seems that talking back has become the new norm. Although Williams never reveals what became of Laura, we can tell from Tom's speech that Laura has a newfound ability to take care of herself. Evans, in the novel, goes into detail about the future of the Grave family. He mentions the new baby and how everyone gets along in the family. Daughters have played a vital role in a family and will always do so..