What I Liked Most About the 50 Shades Series

Teresa Arrowood
Jan 17, 2019
4 min read

I was like most people when the story broke. I wasn’t one to read until my husband bought me a kindle a year prior. I was looking for books to read. I didn’t like to read basicly I couldn’t see the small print in a paper book. I was born premature and it caused damaged to my similar to a detached retina this of course made it difficulty to read and to comprehend. With all the hype about the book which is several years old now, I couldn’t believe there was so much talk about this book or the series it belonged to. A book has to keep my attention for me to keep reading and I was looking for something that made me think along with the romance.

When the people I worked with started talking about it I decided to read the first E-Book Fifty Shades of Gray. I read the first two chapters I read thinking, “What’s the big deal here. I really don’t see anything different here than usual why the big stir?” Well I found out when I got into the third chapter and it blew me away. I had been married around 20 years, and honestly, I had to look some of it up to see what they were talking about. That’s how niave I really was. There is a lot of sex, and abusive situations in the book I’ll admit, but to have to look past it to find the meat of the story. Christan Gray, which is where the story centers around, is a complex man living in a predominately black and white world of his own creation. The more black and white it is the better there is no (pardon the pun) gray areas. The man is a beautiful mess. Born to a poor, young and strung out crack woman of the evening, is forced to live in a life that is deplorable being abused by his mothers pimp. The scares he bares he received by an abusive male that not only abused his mother but him. When his mother died from an apparent overdose he was forced to survive on what he could get to until the athourities placed him in a foster home where he was fostered by the same family that also housed his nemises. Jealousy, greed and power came into the picture as revenge by Jack Hyde who would eventually attack not only Christian’s company but his wife and company in later books.

The story tell the story of a childs heart who grew into a man that demanded to be in control to protect himself from being taken advantage of again. The lifestyle that is hidden from his family was introduced to him by his mother’s best friend Elena Lincoln. The entire story is brought to a end in Fifty Shades Freed. The ulter ego of Anastesia being left out is in full force in the book but you can hear the voice echoing in the movie. The life of a college student a very wealthy self-made millionaire is intriguing but much more so when you find that he is on a power trip leading a life of BDSM. The handsome and charming and Christian Gray has many facets to him thinking he is incapable of love until he meets and innocent Anastasia Steele. There was debate about the book and the movie about a entpreneur going after a young and innocent lady. My feeling is this, she was old enough as a character to make a active decision in the relationship, (talking as if they were real people) debating amoung others that it was ok or not ok to take advantage of a young girl and creating the idea that it was fine to abuse a woman. She was able to walk away anytime she liked. Not only that, it was a story, a movie, it wasn’t real and no one was hurt by it. My feeling is this, Erica James did a fantastic job of coming up with a idea that stunned and delighted her audience in the end. I love the films and this one in particular.

In short the story was fresh, it showed the world a realistic lifestyle and truly fractured human that was just twisted enough to be true. The sweet innocence of Anastesia and the wealthy, dominate millionaire isn’t what you see everyday but it can and does happen. Not everything you come into contact is simple neither is the complexity of human character and what one must do to survive. The romance is there. It may not be easy to spot the first time you read it but start pulling back the layers and see what you finde.

Also if you get the chance get the soundtrack to the movies. I own them and love the flavor of each musical illustration. Thank you E.LJames for entertaining us and bringing to life Christian Gray and Anastasia Steele.