Alice Walker's short fictional story, "Nineteen Fifty-five", revolves around the encounters among Gracie Mae Still, the narrator, and Traynor, the "Emperor of Rock and Roll." Traynor as a young prospective singer purchases a song from Mrs. Still, which becomes his "first hit record" and makes him rich and famous. Yet, he does not "even understand" the song and spends his entire life trying to figure out "what the song means." The song he sings seems as fictional as certain events in this story, but as historical as Traynor's based character, Elvis Presley.

On one hand, the narrator chronologically describes historic events, which occurred during Elvis's life. Starting in 1955 when Traynor, just like Elvis, at age sixteen, started his career as a singer. Moreover, the narrator describes Traynor similarly to the way Elvis looked as a young boy, "about five feet nine, sort of womanish looking, with real dark...