S&R : Fifty Shades of Grey
Fifty Shades Of Grey
When Anastasia Steele, English major ordinary girl takes place of her roommate as a favor, she finds herself coming across a rather enchanting CEO and entrepreneur, Christian Grey. The interview is kicked off by Anna tripping into Christian’s office, leading to him looking down to her on her knees. This sums up what Christian is used to. The consequence of this interview is mutual interest between these two characters from different worlds. Christian shows up at Anna’s work… a suspicious coincidence, or so she thinks. As the story progresses and Anna gets the opportunity to know more about Christian, she realizes the problems that come along with him and his way of doing a relationship. This includes BDSM type sexual interactions and a control dynamic between the two. Anna struggles with this and ultimately leaves at the end of the first book.
The book Fifty Shades Of Grey is a very sexual one. There are more than 6 detailed sexual scenes in the first book alone. Before fifty shades of grey, there are not much if not any examples of a media piece with such explicit contents becoming so popular. So why did this specific plot catch so much attention? It’s all about how women are built. Women want to feel protected and like a man can take charge if harm arose. This is an evolutional need. It’s in the basics of every woman. So when this book comes out and people are reading it, it’s natural for women to grasp the idea of a dominant man, and to even fall in love with it. Even, some fascination from the male audience is expected. But why is something so sexual so popular? Well, going back to an evolutionary standpoint, sex is a way of mating and a way of continuing our race. It’s built into our brains and our bodies. So when we see the opportunity to give into that need and to not be judged as harshly for doing so, it becomes something that many people are attracted to. The scenes are described in a descriptive way and that encaptures the audience. The transitions in and out of sexual scenes, which are usually the most common flaws of romance books, are very seamless and thought out in the book Fifty Shades Of Grey. On top of that, R.L. James uses very creative and detailed words in her sex scenes that could be easy to envision. The audience for this book is a mix, but it is comprised of many women. And this is expected.
The book is written completely from Anna’s perspective (though there is a second version to it from christian’s perspective as well). This says something about the intended audience of the original story that was first written by E.L. James. In fact, she originally wrote the story as a fanfiction based off of twighlight, by Stephanie Meyer. Then she got lash back from users of the site she posted it to. They claimed that it was too sexual. Which it is of course — sexual. And so she posted it to her own website, renaming it. This is when it got read and published and how it arose to the spotlight. It was originally shut down for being too sexual, and then became popular because of that event. This is an interesting thought.
Another thing about fifty shades is the specific personalities of the characters. Anastasia Steele has a shy, quiet dimeaner about her, but she also has some serious sass and witty things to say throughout this book. She is made out to be shy because that’s necessary for the girl to be a submissive and also because bella, from twilight, is like this. Christian Grey is reserved, motivated, and controlling. He likes to have things done his way, and when he would like them to be done. Christian has an aggressive side, and that’s his counter balance. He also has a rare compassionate-vulnerable side too. His likeness resembles that of Edward in twighlight. It’s interesting because both characters have an unexpected twist to their personalities that make them conflict at times but also draws them to each other. When Christian sees Anna’s shy side, and he sees her blush, he is attracted to her instantly and could see her being a submissive for him. He later comes to find that she is not as compliant and easy to conform as he thinks, and this makes him grow as a person throughout the book. Anna sees Christians confidence and dominance and is (like any other woman out there,) attracted to him. She gets to know him in an intimate sense and comes to understand of his unique way of intimacy. She realizes that she does not want that kind of intimacy, but is attracted by its exotic nature at the same time. Both characters have specific personalities that make their chemistry more powerful.
When one considers all of these facts, it’s easy to see that the success of Fifty Shades Of Grey is no surprise.
