er song, and Traynor connect in a way that Elvis and "Big Mamma" Thornton never did.Gracie, as narrator of the story, tells of once fighting blues singer Bessie Smith to keep her from taking the song. Smith is portrayed as a famous contemporary of Gracie. Since the real Smith died when Thornton was 10 years old, Bessie and Gracie could not realistically have fought over a song, and therefore are friends only in fiction.Several times in "Nineteen Fifty-five," Traynor ponders the meaning of Gracie Mae's song. He first complains, "I've sung it and sung it, and I'm making forty thousand dollars a day offa it, and you know what, I don't have the faintest notion what that song means." At later meetings with Gracie Mae, Traynor continues to ask her to explain it. It is now painfully obvious that since he did not write the song himself, Traynor attempts in vain to get the meaning from Gracie Mae by showering her with gifts. Walker never directly identifies the song Gracie Mae provided Traynor as "Hound Dog." Its title is represented by a series of dashes in the story; it appears as "__ __ __.? Since the real song has a transparent meaning and is not named or suggested, Walker probably does not allude to it in the story. The song that puzzles Traynor is pure fiction.Walker seems to craft this story in ways that bear out this idea. In the work, she identifies her main characters with real celebrities but transports them from historical reality into a fictional world illuminated by the values they have come to represent as cultural icons."Nineteen Fifty-Five" has characters based on real musicians in a plot that Walker created. This fusion of allusion and imagination is carefully constructed with a tight thematic unity. Indeed, Walker's story teaches one of her frequently repeated lessons: people must be true to themselves.The story revolves around a contrast between Gracie Mae and Traynor. Gracie is practical, down-to-earth, honest, fun-loving;...
