From the intense feeling of insecurity to the unvarying desire for love, Ana finds herself entwined in the emotional rollercoaster of Christian Grey’s life. With the complexity of their relationship, the writer employs quotes to get at the nitty-gritty details that characterize Ana’s feeling of insecurity and Christian’s emotional coldness.

Expectations Versus Reality

Sometimes I wonder if there’s something wrong with me. Perhaps I’ve spent too long in the company of my literary romantic heroes, and consequently my ideals and expectations are far too high.

The quote above explains Ana’s problem with love. Though surrounded by great guys who show her love constantly, she never gives any of them a chance because her standard for the man she wants to fall in love with is too high. Ana’s unrealistic expectation of love comes from the past trauma of a broken family. As a lover of romance books, she romanticized that her future lover should be an all-around perfect man, and on meeting Christian, she gets everything on her checkbox except for one thing; love.

I’ve kissed a prince, Mom. I hope it doesn’t turn into a frog.

On reaching Georgia, Ana opens up to her mother about her fears concerning Christian. She knows that Christian is not ideal for her, but her savior complex makes her feel she is with a prince charming.

Savior Complex

This is a man in need. His fear is naked and obvious, but he’s lost. . . Somewhere in his darkness. His eyes wide and bleak and tortured. I can soothe him. Join him briefly in the darkness and bring him into the light.

Before she meets Christian, Ana’s life is quite simple and uninteresting. However, the moment she walks into his office, she instantly gets drawn to him. Though her attraction to Christian at first comes from his good looks, later on, she gets attracted to him for a different reason; her savior complex. 

After realizing that Christian is far from perfect, Ana becomes a fixer, desperate to change him. However, it backfires for her as Christian remains controlling towards her. In one last attempt to completely change him, she gives in to his sexual desires and gets heartbroken and torn.

Desire

His other hand grabs my ponytail and yanks down, bringing my face up, and his lips are on mine. It’s only just not painful. I moan into his mouth, giving his tongue an opening. He takes full advantage, his tongue expertly exploring my mouth. I have never been kissed like this.

After Christian meets Ana, he instantly gets drawn to her as he wants to own her. Though he tries to maintain his composure and request a contract, he fails to resist a shy and innocent girl whose entire actions made her the perfect submissive for him. The quote above shows when Christian ignores all forms of civility and takes Ana’s lips in the elevator. It shows his burning desire for Ana, a perfect submissive.

I gasp, and I’m Eve in the Garden of Eden, and he’s the serpent, and I cannot resist.

Though she knew that Christian was far from ideal, Ana fell for him. She discovers that her attraction to Christian is not just from his looks but her insecurities as well; this makes her realize that she is drawn to him just as a bee is to nectar.

Pleasure and Pain

There’s a very fine line between pleasure and pain. They are two sides of the same coin, one not existing without the other.

Before meeting Christian, Ana believed that her lover would be a prince charming who swept her off her feet. However, Christian’s coldness emotionally made her theorize that pleasure and pain were not different. Christian’s influence on Ana makes her become ideologized with the fact that pain and pleasure can exist in romance. 

Imperfection

It’s very hard to grow up in a perfect family when you’re not perfect.

Though he initially comes off as a control freak, Christian gradually opens his life to Ana. He tells her that he struggled to adapt to his newly adopted family, and it caused him to start threading down a dark path. He uses this quote to describe his initial feeling of imperfection as a member of Grey’s household.

Because I’m fifty shades of fucked-up, Anastasia

When Ana meets Christian, they instantly get attracted to each other. However, their attraction to each other comes from two separate ideologies. For Ana, she falls for Christian because he is the epitome of her fantasy dreams about love. Christian gets attracted to Ana because she is the perfect mix of shyness and innocence. As their relationship progresses, Christian begins showing Ana his predatory characteristics, and with her savior complex, she starts prying into the source of his issues. Frustrated by her desire to fix him, Christian tells Ana that he is the epitome of fucked-up.

Human Nature

Men aren’t really complicated, Ana, honey. They are very simple, literal creatures. They usually mean what they say. And we spend hours trying to analyze what they’ve said – when really, it’s obvious. If I were you, I’d take him literally. That might help.

When Ana visits her mother to get some time to figure herself out, she receives advice that quite literally sums up a part of her issue. As a young woman in love with Christian, she always overthought, but her mother advised her that men are simple. She tells her that the worst thing to do is complicate a man’s statement as men take things literally.

Twisted Reality

You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince.

Before meeting Christian, Ana thought her lover would sweep her off her feet and hand her the world. Christian comes into the picture, and though he sweeps her off her feet and owns the world, she realizes that he does not want to give her love. Ana’s inferiority complex shows why she gets attached to Christian in the first place.

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