The Auction of the Ruby Slippers

In At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers, by Salman Rushdie, a set of ruby slippers are up for auction. The bidders of the ruby slippers seem to come from all areas of life.  There are politicians, collectors, movie stars, exiles, and many other types of bidders. “Around the – let us say- shrine of the ruby-sequined slippers, pools of saliva have been forming” (p. 90).  I liked how the author described the bidders drooling over the ruby slippers. Along with the slippers there are a lot of other items being sold at the auction such as,  “In the Grand Salesroom, in recent years, we have witnessed the auction of the Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty, the Alps, the Sphinx” (p. 98). People try to find self fulfillment through buying things in the auction. Even though they have almost no important value they are only wanted for the mere want of ownership.  Why are the Ruby Slippers insisted by the people? Rushdie says that, “We revere the ruby slippers because we believe they can make us invulnerable to witches; because of their powers of reverse metamorphosis, their affirmation of a lost state of normalcy in which we have almost ceased to believe and to which the slippers promise us we can return; and because they shine like the footwear of the Gods. (92)” Made famous by the movie, Wizard of Oz, about the ruby slippers that Dorothy wore with their magical powers of clicking the hells together three times where she would be automatically taken back into her original state

The auctioneers seem to be powerful figures that are part of a governmental power, “under the firm yet essentially benevolent supervision of the Auctioneers, their security dogs and Swat teams, we engage in a battle of wits and wallets, a war of nerves.” (99) The auctioneers are in charge of the whole presentation and putting together the piece.  The auctioneers hold an important status in the fictional society, “The Grand Saleroom of the Auctioneers is the beating heart of the earth.” (98) The auctioneers seem to be the highest people in the society.  “It is to the Auctioneers we go to establish the value of our pasts, of our futures, of our lives.(101)” They appear almost as the postion of God. Rushdie’s fictional society is under the control of the auction and those who control it, because they put the aution together.

The bidders are only as important as they bid.  You can’t blame the individuals for wanted to own the best or the most of a possession.  People all over the world compete for the best of something weather its shoes, clothes, or cars.  We live in a much materialized world, where we only focus on our possessions.  I can’t say that I don’t fit into the materialized world; I too see something and want it.  I believe that in our world it’s about what we can buy or our material status, rather then being content with what we have.  However, there are people who focus on what they have and are only happy with their possessions.

The narrators’ cousin, Gale, gets caught up in the bidding and starts to let it overwhelm him. The narrator starts to get overcome by the obsession of bidding on the ruby slippers, but then he comes to realize that objects can not buy happiness. The narrator basically leaves his cousin Gale to bid on his own. The narrator leaves the aution.   “So it is that my cousin Gale loses her hold over me in the crucible of the auction. So it is that I drop out of the bidding, go home, and fall asleep.  When I awake I feel refreshed and free” (p.102).  Rushdie was trying to show how people can get obsessed over material possessions that are just there.  Rushdie was trying to state that people need to be happy in their lives now, and be happy with what they have, not waht they can get.