Salman Rushdie's At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers

The Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie growing up. I could watch it over and over again and never get sick and tired of it. Judy Garland played Dorothy wonderfully and allowed me to get swept up in the tornado and fall into the magical Munchkin Land and venture off into Emerald City, right beside her and her companions, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Toto.

After the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khomeini stated Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses, blasphemed Islam, Rushdie was forced into hiding for fear of his life. Khomeini offered a reward to whoever succeeded in killing the novelist. While in hiding, Rushdie wrote At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers. And yes we are talking about the exact ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz. The narrator in the story is attending the auction in hopes of purchasing the ruby slippers. With the ruby slippers he plans to present them to his cousin and ex-lover, Gale, to win back her love. After crazy love making, of which he continuously fantasizes over, she cheated on him and still hopes he can get her back.

Attending the auction is everyone and anyone: movie stars, political refugees, orphans, literary characters, men, women. The SWAT team and priests stand by, ready to deal with “insanity overspills” (East, West, 87) and unexpected births or deaths” (East, West, 87). Our narrator is obviously a memorabilia junkie, as are all the other bidding attendees. The purchasing of a material item fits perfectly into today’s society, where everyone is materialistic. The narrator thinks he can win back his ex-lover’s love by presenting a material item, little does he know that love is something that can not be purchased. Other items had been auctioned off as well, such as Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty, the Alps, the Sphinx, wives and husbands. This is obviously a use of satire.

After looking at and interpreting Salman Rushdie’s story in the literal sense, I know there is more to it. There must be symbolism all throughout the literary piece. My main question is does Salman Rushdie play the role of the ruby slippers? Maybe the narrator? With everyone wanting to kill Rusdhie after Khomeimi’s request of death, everyone is after him, just as the attendees of the auction were drooling over the slippers. The attendees were willing to do anything for the slippers, even willing to pay any some of money.

The ruby slippers are representing the ability of time change and location change. The ability to go back in time would be extremely valuable if it were possible. Maybe Rushdie was playing around with the idea of possibly going back in time and taking back his publication of The Satanic Verses. Rushdie’s use of satire in the story to point out the flaws of our materialistic society were entertaining.