Fifty Shades of Grey - Book Report/Review Example

? The main characters of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ are Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. The novel revolves around the unconventional relationship between the two with the unusual sexual requirements of the wealthy and striking young businessman through Christian Grey and the innocent yielding of Ana to his requests. I personally find the plot of the story a little too absurd to be believable but this is simultaneously its selling point. The main problem that I could not come to terms with is the proposal that Christian made and the acceptance by Ana. Given all the circumstances and the justification that E. L. James made in the story, I find it unrealistic that someone would agree to it, especially a character like Ana who was portrayed as the most docile and virtuous person. I couldn’t imagine someone in real life coming up to a college girl and offering the same terms but then again that just might be my own unworldliness. Setting aside my bias toward the believability of the storyline, I like Ana better than Christian. There was more development to the character of Ana than there was in Christian in this first installment. Ana started out as the inexperience girl who knew nothing about sex, much less the intricate details of sado-masochism in the bedroom, but she emerged to have gained not only knowledge about it but also insight. She was a simple girl who was so smitten to the idea that a rich, charismatic and popular man was into her she would have jumped hoops just to keep the interest going. As a character, I think that Christian Grey was written off too perfect to enable the reader to actually invest in him. George Clooney sounds like an average Joe compared to how he is portrayed. Even the explanations to his childhood and his relationship with the older woman were undermined to explain his nature. Essentially, there are no bad characters in the book only flawed ones. There are no antagonists except the protagonists themselves which makes it somewhat akin to anti-hero characterization. The main idea of the book is about the experience of sado-masochism and the interchange between the dominant and the submissive. This is centered on the proclivity of the namesake of the book’s title Christian Grey to enter into a contractual sexual relationship where he is named the dominant or ‘dom’ and the other person is the submissive or ‘sub.’ The plot involves the entry of Ana in Christian’s life and how they are both rattled by their reaction to each other. Ana hesitantly agrees the unenforceable contract and learns that she has bit off more than she can chew while Christian is taken aback by the effect that Ana has on him which is inconsistent to his overall disposition toward his subs. The contract agreed to between them, though not legal, contains in detail the terms of their relationship. It reduces the affair into paper and states the rights and obligations that both parties have. It contains in detail the things that they could do, those the other cannot do including safewords, the schedule, the activities, the food and even the clothes that Ana will have to abide with. Christian assures her that these things are standard and that she has to agree to them if she wants to continue on to the have a sexual relationship with him. The book is typically erotic with the detailed expositions on the sexual encounters between the two characters. “He takes one of my hands and places it against his erection” (James, 2011, p.265) “‘I like you sore.’ His eyes smolder. ‘Reminds you where I’ve been, and only me’” (ibid, p.373). These passages definitely exemplify that the book is erotica at the very least. The writing of the story contains flow and articulation that calling it porn would diminish it but calling it a romantic fiction would be making an understatement. Through ‘Fifty Shades of grey’ I learned more about dominant and submissive sexual relationships. The novel was very graphic about how these things work that one could not help but paint a mental picture of the acts done and the gravity of these sometimes extreme fetishes as they were written. Sado-masochism is portrayed lightly and it aims to show that even normal people can engage in it without substantial explanation as to why they do so. I find the story disturbing in the sense that it is dealt with casually but I do ascribe that there are people who enjoy these kinds of things. The important thing, as the book highlights, is that the persons involved actually agree to it and that they are doing it voluntarily. I also know that certain acts can be very dangerous that they should know when to stop. Oftentimes, hurting someone starts off without meaning to. Limitations are imperative and the trust must be present because you are basically putting your life in the hands of the other person, all for sexual pleasure. This book brings into mainstream a practice that is attributable to sexual deviance without even having to explain or giving a rightful justification to it. I like the tension that was built between the characters. The author made a strong description of Ana as a naive girl who had to struggle in order to finish her education while working on the side. Her closeness to her family and how she was brought up in a typical household without much material wealth in contrast to Christian’s unusual upbringing with adoptive parents and siblings in a rich environment. The difference between them was night and day. Ana was just starting out in her life, about to finish college while Christian was already established despite his young age. The stature of Christian as somewhat salt of the earth compared to Ana who still works at a hardware store best explains the latter’s reaction to the attention shown towards her. She was characterized as clumsy but intrepid in their encounters. “I push open the door and stumble through, tripping over my own feet and falling headfirst into the office” (ibid, p.7). Nevertheless, despite how she regards herself as not in par in terms of beauty with other women, she can hold a candle beside them. The novel also shows that Ana does not think herself beautiful even though there are a number of men enamored by her such as Paul and Jose. I did not quite like the repetitive tone of the novel in terms of describing Christian Grey and the relationship that they have. The narrative by Ana tends to revolve around the same ideas. She being unsure of the things they are doing then the pleasure she gains from their encounters and overthinking how she should react or what she should say. The justifications for the acts that Christian will do to Ana were too graphic and too wordy. Every action seems to have an equivalent explanation that tries to explain the act bit by bit. When Christian pulled out a sex toy with silver balls he says, “I am going to put these inside you, and then I’m going to spank you, not for punishment, but for your pleasure and mine” (ibid, p.362). Also, “My intention is not that you should use the safeword because you’re in pain. What I intend to do will be intense” (ibid, p.486). In almost all the sexual encounters that they have, Christian explains in a vague manner his intentions and how Ana should perceive it which does not sound authentic. I do not think that the book degrades women in any way. The sub and the dom can be the other way around and the novel does not implicate that it is always the man who is the dominator. Ana was not the submissive just because she is a woman but because that was what the story called for as penned by the writer. It does not degrade women and saying so is almost tantamount to declaring that women cannot enjoy sex as much as men do. This is a trite sentiment that I think no longer holds true. I believe many women are open about their sexuality and know what they want. I am not surprised that a woman, a wife and mother in fact, can write about a topic such as submissive-dominant relationships. These times are beyond the social connotations that a woman has to be prim and proper all the time. Women can and do enjoy sex that they may write freely about it. Actually, had this been written by a male writer, the readers’ reaction may not be the same. Because this was written by a woman, I think that women feel validated as sexual beings and are acceptable in reading them. The reactions and the interplay, as seen in the point of view of the female character, are more realistic than if they were written by a man. Without the explicit sexual content, I think this novel would be no more than a Harlequin romance publication or any other conventional romance reads. The basic plot of a handsome well-off businessman falling in love with the middle-class innocent girl is not a groundbreaking outline. But they are conventional characters because they could be real. The two protagonists are not fully developed characters but they are close enough. In all honesty, it is the sexual encounters that stuck and some of the scenes are just too far-fetched in the narration and the dialogue that I could not imagine them as real people. They are drawn to each other because they are different. There was the element of the chase on each of them. On the part of Christian, to get a girl he felt attracted despite her disparity to his common type, and on the part of Ana, to keep the interest of a guy she could have only dreamed of. The book guises what we think of as deviant into normal sexuality because the characters are normal. It hopes to eliminate to the distinction and that gender is not an issue because men and women both exude sexuality. Our sociological acceptance of sexual natures has grown tremendously over the decades and ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ proves that. This book gives license to people, especially women, to explore sexual possibilities starting with literature. I would recommend this book simply to encourage other people to actually read it first before making an opinion about it and not join in all the hoopla of popular media. I would advise them to prepare for vivid sexual descriptions as it is the definitive catch of the book. Afterwards, I would like to gain their insight on whether they enjoyed it as literature or simply as an erotic reading. Bibliography James, E.L. (2011). Fifty Shades of Grey. New York: Vintage Books. Read More