"Nineteen Fifty Five" is a short story by Alice Walker. It was published in 1981. Alice Walker is a poet and a fiction writer. She was born in Georgia and attended college at Sarah Lawrence. "Nineteen Fifty-five" has two main characters. Traynor and Gracie Mae Still. She is known as "little mama". Walker bases her character on real people, but does not describe the meaning of each character. There are many similarities between Traynor and Elvis Presley. Like Elvis, Traynor is a singer who performs in front of millions of screaming teenagers. "His hair is black and curly and he looks like a Loosiana creole".
             Gracie Mae Still is an elderly colored woman who sells a white southern man named Traynor her song for five hundred dollars. Traynor makes his own version of the song, almost exact to her version. The song becomes a hit and he rises to fame. Gracie Mae wrote and recorded that same song that she sold to him. Gracie Mae and Traynor start off in a not so comfortable way in the beginning of the story. is a white man, probably from the south because of his accent. She is a colored woman. Gracie Mae lives in an all colored community because in the first paragraph of the story she says"....they are white, and wonder what in the world they doin in this neighborhood." As the story progresses, Gracie Mae and Traynor develop a relationship that no one would expect. The meaning in this short story is that money cannot buy you happiness.
             ...