What is a good short story about the american dream to compare with Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman? What is a good short story about the american...

"The Secret Life
of Walter Mitty" is a story about a person who escapes into fantasies in order to escape
from the intolerable conditions of his dull life and his overbearing wife. 

"Sonny's Blues" might be a different direction to take. This is a story about
a jazz musician who chooses to side-step reality (which is harsh in its racism, its lack of
opportunities, it's failure to offer viable modes of identity) and does so by taking drugs. He
is loved. He is talented. But he is running away.