Alice Walker’s Nineteen Fifty-Five

1. Alice Walker’s Nineteen Fifty-Five By: Alex Wood, Manny Oliva, Kyle Mercier, and Shawn Nguon

2. Biographical Info. This source is an interview conducted by a Miss. Evelyn C. White. The interview was between her and Alice Walker. The interview consisted of questions regarding her early childhood life and struggles. It also referred to her new and old book that were coming. or came out at the time. Some of the questions were “What did you learn about yourself while writing the novel? ” and “You have an extraordinary reach and ability with characterization in your novels. Where did the characters in By the Light... come from?”. The interview was long but mainly focused on questions about her book. At the beginning it did talk of her early life. She asked questions like “How was it like for an African-American growing up?”.

3. Historical Context Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" is one of the most instantly recognizable pop songs known to man. It's a song so closely associated with the King of Rock and Roll, many mistakenly assume that it was originally by Presley. When "Hound Dog" was originally recorded for the first time the rhythm-and-blues singer Ellie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton in Los Angeles, California.

4. Historical Context (Cont.) Big Mama Thornton was a native of Montgomery, Alabama, who came onto the R&B circuit in the 1940s after starting her professional career in 1941 at the young age of 14. In 1951, she signed her first record contract with Peacock Records and was soon paired with bandleader Johnny Otis, who brought Thornton out to join his band in California. Hits like "Yakkity Yak,""Charlie Brown," "Stand By Me," "Jailhouse Rock" and "Love Potion No. 9" were written by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller but their first hit was when Otis asked them to write a song for him and they came back to him with "Hound Dog."

5. Historical Context (Cont.) In 1953, Big Mama Thornton and the Johnny Otis Band recorded "Hound Dog" and made it into a hit on the R&B charts, where it stayed at #1 for seven weeks. It wasn't Thornton's recording, however, that made Elvis record "Hound Dog" three years later. Presley's inspiration came from a rewrite by a singer named Freddie Bell, who changed the original lyrics to include the now-familiar "Cryin' all the time" and "You ain't never caught a rabbit."

6. Setting The setting in the short story is pretty vague. It is inferred that the story takes place in a rural area in the South around 1955. In this period of time rock and roll musicians were beginning to gain publicity rapidly throughout America.

7. Literary Criticism The article "You Just Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Alice Walker Sings the Blues." gives a detailed summary of Alice Walker’s short story “Nineteen Fifty-Five”, along with some literary criticism of the story. The article states that Walker was influenced by the work of 1950s southern Jazz musicians, and how their work was “stolen” by the up-and-coming Rock n’ Roll musicians, like Elvis Presley (whose character is portrayed in Walker’s “Nineteen Fifty-Five”). Walker’s story also highlights the struggles that black women (more specifically, black women who were musicians) underwent during the 1950s.

8. Literary Criticism Among these was the increasing difficulty to find a respectful and a semi-colorblind audience that would respect both the musician and their music. Also, black Jazz musicians had to compete with the rising stars of the Rock n’ Roll artists like Elvis during this time period. As stated in “Nineteen Fifty-Five”, Rock n’ Roll singers often bought (or stole) the work of Jazz musicians to be used as Rock songs, and often made a pretty penny off them.

9. Conflict The conflict of the story is that Traynor is rich and famous because of a song that was sold to him by an african american woman named Gracie. He returns to Gracie to ask her where the song came from. He wants to know it’s meaning because he doesn’t like knowing he is rich and famous over a song that doesn’t have meaning to him.

10. Theme(s) The story addresses a political issue, but Walker’s approach transcends the political theme by creating characters who live two different lives because of their social class. Traynor becomes a pitiable character, as he is kind of put againist his own will by the entertainment industry. The greatest irony involves Traynor’s curiosity of the meaning behind the song; never being in emotional possession of the song brings Traynor repeatedly to Gracie Mae, who cannot explain what the true meaning is. This relates to The issues of African Americans because they were not recognized for any of their accomplishments as much as a white person would have been acknowledged. It shows a racial discrimination against African Americans and how they are not noticed for things they have done in the past.

11. Summary This story takes place in a time a racial bias. This story is about a white male and a female african american who create a trusting relationship through a song. A boy by the name of Treynor had an agent who bought a song from an African-American woman named Gracie. In her neighborhood the song wasn’t getting much popularity so she sold the song. As time passed she heard on the radio her very song. It was a hit across the country and it was song by Treynor.

12. Summary Treynor returns one day to Gracie to ask her a question. A question that builds their relation. What is the meaning of the song. Treynor has become rich and famous from this song and he wants to know where did the song originate and what was the meaning of it. They become close and throughout life Treynor never got an answer because Gracie hadn’t really known the answer. Eventually he learned the meaning of the song by relating it to his own life. Later in life Treynor died.

13. Works Cited • ""You Just Can't Keep a Good Woman Down": Alice Walker Sings the Blues." African American Review Vol. 30 Ch. 2. Ed. Maria V. Johnson. John Hopkins University, 15 July 1996. Web. 30 Jan. 2014. • http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Observer/Pix/pictures/2013/3/8/1362751160215/Alice-Walker-001.jpg • http://deepsouthmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/alice-walker.jpg • “Hound Dog Is Recorded for the First Time by Big Mama Thornton.”History.com. A&E Television Networks. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. • http://chuckmanchicagonostalgia.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/x-photo-chicago-south-chicago-commercial-and-92nd-1950s-from-pullman-archives.jpg • http://thistosay.blogspot.com/2004/12/nineteen-fifty-five-by-alice-walker.htm • http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110225/new_pa69.jpg