Ruby Slippers: Hope for a New Home

I remember as a little girl always wanting a pair of ruby red slippers just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. I remember whenever I went into a toy store or any store I would always run straight for the sparkly red shoes. What was it about those shoes that always drew me to them? Was it because “they shine like the footwear of the gods?” (p. 92) What was it about the shoes that drew in all crowds in the story “The Auction of the Ruby Slippers” by Salman Rushdie?

What the shoes represented in this story was hope for a town that was cursed by evil. As it reads on page 92, “We revere the ruby slippers because we believe they can make us invulnerable to witches...”, this coming from the narrarator, which we never quite figure out who exactly he is. What these people are hoping for is that these slippers have magical powers beyond limitations..."We suspect that these limits may not exist." (p.87)

But what is it about the ruby slippers that drew in all these people when it seems as though this auction was a regular event where things far greater then ruby slippers had been sold. Why would these slippers be more special then the Taj Mahal, the Alps, State secrets, or human souls ( just to name a few of the previous auction items)? I think what these ruby slippers represent is home. Just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, all of these people in this story are frightened and want these slippers to take them to a place that feels more like home. In the story the narrarator talks about the shoes taking people to the past, bringing back ancestors, doing un-imaginable things. The narrarator even asks “Are we asking, hoping for, too much?” After all they are just slippers.

When reading the story it was hard to imagine all the different bidders. It sounded like there were people from all walks of life there. Even the poorest of the poor were allowed in. There were whores and martians and all walks of life in attendance...all for these ruby slippers.

“Everything is for sale...in the courtroom of demand” (pp. 98-99) With all things in the world imaginable being up for auction, I think that Salman Rushdie is trying to open our eyes to a much deeper meaning behind the ruby slippers. Behind the whole auction scenario. Maybe he is touching a subject of what we as humans are willing to give up. Maybe he is touching on the fact that we consume and consume and consume at any cost. At the cost of the planet if that is what it takes. It reads “In fictions girp, we may mortgage our homes, sell our children, to have whatever it is we crave.” (p.102)

It seems as though the auction of the ruby slippers represents a place that our world might become if we don't watch out. It seems to represent our over consumption as a whole and how we will get to a point where all that can save us, all that we can hope for is a pair of ruby slippers to take us to a place other than where we find ourselves.

Maybe what this story represents is me, a human, realizing that in our world of chaos and over-consumption, that we as a species need to stop what we are doing and stop giving up everything in our lives for what we crave.  We will literally give up the most valuable things in our lives for what we want just to have the self-satisfaction of having it now.  Whether it be a coffee, a new car, or a new nose we will get it even if we don't have the means. There is no longer such a thing as a need in today's society.  In today's society a want has become a need and we are destroying our earth because of it. 

So, maybe those sparkling ruby slippers represent the purity and hope of a girl who wants click her heels together, exit the world we have created, and go home.