A Bounty Removed?

            Telling stories are a great way to express one’s ideas or emotions without actually admitting those feelings are the writer’s own.  Salman Rushdie is a great example of this style in the short story “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers” in his book East, West.  At the time he wrote this story he was under a “fatwa” and was thus in isolation from his country and family members for his own safety.  There was a ransom out on his head and for a period of ten years he was forced into hiding.

            The story is all about an auction that is taking place for ruby slippers and the vast amount of different people in attendance.  However, there are a few detours in flashbacks that are key to the story and to understanding Rushdie.  The first detour is one where the narrator talks about an astronaut that is “stranded on Mars without hope of rescue” (Rushdie 96).  The man on Mars is in extreme isolationism from the rest of the world just like Rushdie was during the 10 years he spent in hiding.  Clearly, he felt like he was on another planet as he could not even see his family.

            Rushdie continues on with this theme as he says that “one becomes detached from the earth” (102).  He clearly felt at the time detached and isolated from all that he once knew.  He adds to this by saying that “we may mortgage our homes, sell our children, to have whatever it is we crave” (102).  Here, it is easy to see how bad Rushdie wants to return to his lifestyle before the fatwa.  He is close to a point where he would almost give anything to return to the life he once knew.  Moreover, Rushdie is touching on the notion of the rubby slippers and how they relate to the Wizard of Oz.  Dorothy was able to tap her ruby slippers together and was able to go home.  Rushdie is playing with the idea of winning this auction and being able to go home.  It is no accident that Rushdie chose the ruby slippers to be the auction item in his story.

            Earlier in the story, the narrator talks about losing the love of his life, Gale.  She broke up with him and he has always wanted to get her back.  The narrator’s plan is to win the auction of the ruby slippers and give them to Gale so she will get back together with him.  He says that he might “win back her heart” (98).  This part of the story is making a case that Rushdie had ideas to do something in his life that would remove the fatwa and enable him to return to his normal life.  He would do something drastic (win a lavish auction) in order to get back his life that he lost (Gale in terms of the narrator).

The best thing that can happen for the narrator is to lose the auction-and that is exactly what happens.  He loses the auction but realizes there are always things for sale.  The concept that buying one thing will make everyone alright (or a quick fix) is absurd.  Rushdie is clearly satirizing the fact that many people buy material objects to make them feel better.  However, these people are really just hiding in life and are not really experiencing all life has to offer.  The narrator finally realizes this at the end of the story and is much happier as a result of this epiphany.

            Even though the narrator loses the auction, Rushdie leaves clues that not all hope is lost.  Near the beginning of the story, Rushdie writes that “political refugees are at the auction” (91).  He is simply saying that refugees are in the public eye at the auction.  Rushdie was a refugee during his fatwa and he is leaving hope that he too will be able to return to society.  Finally, after the narrator loses the auction, he realizes that there are many other auctions that take place.  Or, in Rushdie’s world, there are many more chances to make amends and return to his normal life so that he can “feel refreshed, and free” (102).