Summary And Analysis Of The Fifty Shades Of Grey By E. L. James
The Fifty Shades of Grey is a book full of drama, love and spicy content, charged with an adorable and mysterious story. The book has some charismatic characters as main attraction; those characters are Anastasia Steel a 21 years old girl and English Literature student and Christian Grey the magnificent, handsome and rich Grey a man who has different preferences, he says, but really Christian Grey is a control's obsessive and a man with serious mental problems in things that are related with sex. The book is very interesting and exciting and has many factors that make it appealing to the reader. The book is divided into chapters that describe the situations perfectly and in a way, the reader can understand it, along with the narration that gives the feeling like you are looking through the characters’ eyes.
This story relates the development of a typical case of “love at first sight” for our mysterious co-protagonist, the classic rich philanthropist that gets whatever he wants puts his look in a shy but beautiful and gorgeous girl and tries to make her his next victim, but instead he becomes a victim of one of Cupid’s cruel pranks and becomes a victim of the vicious “Karma”. Since the moment they meet they get in love with each other, Christian thinks and sees Anastasia as the perfect docile victim to do the things that make him feel enjoyment in sex, but after knowing each other they realize that they have a wrong perception about themselves. Anastasia is not a docile girl and Christian is not a perfect man.
The story is written in a way that the narrative transports you and gives you the feeling like you are reading someone’s diary, that you are reading someone’s story, a story that you could easily feel like part of yours. What we can first see is the deep way we teleport ourselves to the story knowledge for future actions, but also shows the reader how funny and surprising life can be. We can find an example of this, Ana says and quote:
“Gathering my satchel, I smile wryly at her, then head out the door to the car. I cannot believe I have let Kate talk me into this. But then Kate can talk anyone into anything. ”
This can easily make the reader gets the feeling Ana is having about the way she lets her friend convince her to do such thing, a situation that anyone can relate because at some point in our lives we have had that friend, which starts to develop a connection between the reader and the character.
Another outstanding point of the book is the descriptions of the places, characters and emotions that makes you feel like you are actually experiencing those emotions too, which makes you get deeper into the story because you know the exact locations, how everything looks like and what the person is feeling at the moment, every single detail is described perfectly and you cannot help but make a movie in your head.
Ana gives a vivid description of the place she is standing in front of and you cannot help but picture it in your head, she says:
“My destination is the headquarters of Mr. Grey’s global enterprise. It’s a huge twenty-story office building, all curved glass, and steel, an architect’s utilitarian fantasy, with Grey House written discreetly in steel over the glass front doors. It’s a quarter to two when I arrive, greatly relieved that I’m not late as I walk into the enormous – and frankly intimidating – glass, steel, and white sandstone lobby. ”
The writer thought about every detail in such a way that you as a reader cannot deny that he or she is there, which Ana or at some point being her.
The characters make the story interesting and very different from the others, they are not perfect, they are presented as flawed works in progress who are doing their best they can with all that is going on in their lives.
The two main characters, Anastasia Steel and Christian Grey are a vivid example of what relationships nowadays are, showing a more realistic perspective of the problems, that regardless of the social differences, every couple has when miscommunication and secrets are in the mix of trying to make a relationship work.
The touch of fantasy is given to the story is the “rich boy meets girl and falls for her” makes the book more appealing because no woman can deny they wish to catch someone as intense, attractive and mysterious as Mr. Grey himself. Christian says:
“Anastasia, I’ve told you. There’s something about you. I can’t leave you alone. ”
Anastasia and Christian meet each other in Grey’s enterprises during an interview that Ana makes him for the University’s newspaper. After the meeting, Christian was fascinated with Ana and investigated everything about her.
They had their second meeting in Ana’s job (a hardware store) where Christian went to buy some things for his sexual activities, as always Ana was so nervous, but the roles were exchanged when Paul (Ana’s superior) get into the conversation during a short period time in the hardware store. Paul was too near to Ana and Christian was jealous and did not like the action so much, so he asked Ana if they had any kind of relationship after work.
While time went by, Christian was more interested in Ana, he felt he had to be close to her every minute of the day and maybe of his entire life. He did a photo shoot for the University’s newspaper just because he wanted to be with Ana. After many hours of photos and photos when they finished with that, they went for a coffee, they had the long-awaited conversation about their attraction to each other, and Christian concluded that he was not the perfect man for her.
The days passed and Christian was frustrated due to he was not with Ana until this happened: Ana went out drinking with her friends and ended up drunk dialing Christian, who informed her that he was in the way to pick her up because of her inebriated state. Ana went outside to get some fresh air, and José attempted to kiss her, but was stopped by Christian's arrival. Ana left with Christian, but not before she discovered that Kate had been flirting with Christian's brother, Elliot. Later, Ana woke to find herself in Christian's hotel room, where he took care of herself. Christian then revealed that he would like to have sex with her. He initially says that Ana will first have to fill in paperwork, but later goes back on this statement after making out with her in the elevator.
Ana went on a date with Christian, on which he took her in his helicopter, Charlie Tango, to his apartment. Once there, Christian insisted that she sign a non-disclosure agreement forbidding her from discussing anything they do together, which Ana agreed to sign. He also mentioned other paperwork, but first took her to his playroom full of sex toys and gear. There, Christian informed her that the second contract will be one of dominance and submission, and there will be no romantic relationship, only a sexual one. The contract even forbids Ana from touching Christian or making eye contact with him. At this point, Christian realized that Ana was a virgin and took her virginity without making her sign the contract.
Christian later took Ana out to eat, and he revealed that he lost his virginity at age 15 to one of his mother's friends, Elena Lincoln and that his previous dominant/submissive relationships failed due to incompatibility. Christian also revealed that in his first dominant/submissive relationship he was the submissive. Christian and Ana planned to meet again, and he took Ana home, where she discovered several job offers and admitted to Kate that she and Christian had sex.
Over the next few days, Ana received several packages from Christian. These included a laptop to enable her to research the dominant/submissive lifestyle in consideration of the contract; to communicate with him, and to receive a more detailed version of the dominant/submissive contract. She and Christian email each other, with Ana teasing him and refusing to honor parts of the contract, such as only eating foods from a specific list. Ana later met with Christian to discuss the contract and became overwhelmed by the potential arrangement and the potential of having a sexual relationship with Christian that is not romantic. Because of these feelings, Ana runs away from Christian and did not see him again until her college graduation, where he was a guest speaker.
During this time, Ana agreed to sign the dominant/submissive contract. Ana and Christian once again met to discuss the contract, and they went over Ana's hard and soft limits. Christian spanked Ana for the first time, and the experience left her both enticed and slightly confused. This confusion was exacerbated by Christian's lavish gifts and the fact that he brought her to meet his family. The second continued with the arrangement without Ana's having yet signed the contract.
After successfully landing a job, Ana further bristles under the restrictions of the non-disclosure agreement and her complex relationship with Christian. The tension between Ana and Christian eventually came to a head after Ana asked Christian to punish her to show her how extreme a dominant/submissive relationship with him could be. Christian fulfilled Ana's request, beating her with a belt, and Ana realized they were incompatible. Devastated, she broke up with Christian and returned to the apartment she shared with Kate.
The book has an extremely sad ending because it has not finished, how it is said in movies: “To be continued”.
In conclusion, this book is known for its explicit sex scenes, part of which the descriptions take a big part of, and probably that’s why many consider as “mommy porn’', they take risks, executing some explicit and dirty actions in some public places, like restaurants, etc. That’s a major point and one of the principals’ reasons of why people love and prefer this book between others, because some of them outdoors feel so nervous and are kind of afraid of the real world, and this book help them to get some self-confidence and to have a creative mind, but that is just the plus of a book who has two very interesting main characters development story that follows a path of self-discovery and adjustment to the needs and likes of its opposite. The sex scenes may make the book more interesting for many but the story on its own makes the reader get into the thoughts of Anastasia and makes a journey that at the end makes you question if you would be able or willing to go that extra mile for someone or if you at some point of your life put yourself in the position for those kinds of situations to happen and also makes you try to analyze the true concept and differences between love and lust, “Fifty Shades of Grey” is a really interesting book, very helpful in some points of view with too many characteristics, with a rich and fascinating story, charismatic characters, a passionate argument and most of all, a beautiful development.
References
- E. L. James. Fifty Shades of Grey. UK: Vintage Books. 20 June 2011.
- 'E. L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey tops New York Times list'. UK: BBC. 11 March 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
- 'Erotic book Fifty Shades of Grey becomes UK bestseller'. UK: BBC. 19 April 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
- Alex Stedman. ''Fifty Shades' Spinoff 'Grey' Stolen From Publisher (Report)'. Variety. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
- 'Fifty Shades of Grey Release Date Pushed Back to February 13, 2015—Just in Time for Valentine's Day!'. E! Online. 13 November 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
- 'Fifty Shades is UK's best-selling book of all time'. 7 August 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
