Her emails are hacked by her boss, the one who is vexed with desire for her and agitated by her evident longings for another man - a younger, better-looking, and more successful man.

James needed to ruffle Christian Grey’s jealous feathers and provide us with an antagonist that would show us how strong the sweet and innocent Anastasia really is behind her demure persona.Īnastasia’s annoying traits include sending sexy messages to Christian while at work via her work computer, even though he keeps insisting that she stop. But she takes the job anyway because we need some conflict. The reason he hires her as an editorial assistant, despite her inexperience in the field, is apparent to everyone reading the book, and it is obvious to Anastasia. She accepts a job with a pariah, a loser who hires her because he desires her, is obviously trying to get friendly with her, and even attempts to rape her. She didn’t have a sexual identity to begin with, let alone a strong sense of self or the determination needed to walk away from a BDSM contract and its volatile owner.Īnastasia Steele’s character is annoying, to say the least. Kathryn would have laughed in his face, but I guess this is why Anastasia Steele had to be a twenty-four-year-old virgin. I preferred the strength and intelligence of her best friend, Kathryn, who would never sign a BDSM contract in hopes that she could make a man love her. She doesn’t know what she wants, or what she’s into. Aside from the virgin in her twenties and the single-minded reliance on school and literature for escape and function, I couldn’t really relate to her.Īnastasia Steele is what I consider a weak literary heroine. Perhaps most women were able to relate to the virginal protagonist, Anastasia Steele, who falls in love with a man she is willing to change. It’s getting a lot of interesting comments there, heated rebuttals, really, but on my own blog, I want to write about how I personally reacted to the main characters. A few years ago, I wrote a book review of the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy for HerCircle from a feminist perspective.

50 shades of gray contract