The Curse of the Ruby Slippers

            While I was reading, “The Auction of the Ruby Slippers”, my mind kept jumping around as I tried to piece together what was going on.  The author, Salman Rushdie uses a lot of descriptive language that kind of puts a mysterious twist to the short story. The Ruby Slippers seemed to me like they were this magical object that could alleviate people’s troubles and fulfill their dreams.  The slippers seemed to posses this godly power that seems to drive people’s desires. For example, the ruby slippers, “shine like the footwear of the gods” (p. 92).  The slippers seem to put a sort of illusionary trance on the people who want them.

            The bidders of the ruby slippers seem to come from all walks of life.  There are politicians, collectors, movie stars, exiles, and many other types of bidders. I especially liked how the author described the bidders drooling over the ruby slippers. “Around the – let us say- shrine of the ruby-sequined slippers, pools of saliva have been forming” (p. 90).  The ruby slippers seemed to be prized in cultures around the world. Along with the slippers there are a lot of other items being sold at the auction. For example, 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).  There seems to be some pretty strangle objects for sale at the auction. At first I was very surprised to hear that these historical objects were being auctioned off, and then I thought maybe they were movie props, like the ruby slippers. 

            I felt that the narrator was a wealthier man that is troubled by his past. He seemed to have some sort of involvement with the movie industry.  His cousin/lover Gale seems to be at the center of his troubles. I thought the narrator did sound like Rushdie. Since he was disconnected with the real world I thought he was kind of satirizing how materialistic the world has become and how people try to find happiness of solve problems by acquiring objects. I believe he was trying to make the point that money cannot buy happiness.  I felt that the narrator demonstrated this through his heartbreaking relationship with his cousin Gale. 

            The narrator thought the magical ruby slippers would reunite him with his lost soul mate but in the heat of the auction he comes to a sort of self actualization and has this reality check. He gives up the bidding and in a way gives up on Gale.  “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).  I believe Rushdie was trying to show how people can get obsessed over certain things that cannot be changed. I feel he was trying to make a point about living in the now and persevering on, even in troubled times.