seperation from desire= discovery of self

There is something in everyone’s life, whether it may be a tangible object, an ideal, or a forbidden desire, that is perceived to be the key to ones complete happiness or fulfillment. Such an object may be obtained rationally or, as in the case of Salman Rushdie’s “An Auction of the Ruby Slipper” it might drive the masses into a frenzy of desire via an auction. This brilliantly written short story, which is filled with hidden analogies and messages, explores to what extent people will go in order to acquire the prized ruby slippers. These ruby slippers are the epitome of human desire and the nararators progression of thought throughout the story displays how ones consciousness can be affected by these slippers, whether he is in possession of them or not.

The narrator in this story starts out by confessing, “People nowadays are sick.” Many have gathered at an auction, and although this is a frequent auction, the item for bid is of utmost value. The item for bid transcends the human realm and its perceived power has no limits. The items power has the bidders in an obsessive craze because they believe no amount of money is equal to its worth. Religious fundamentalists attend the event in hopes they might be able to win the slippers and burn them. Their hopes of doing this are fueled by their desire to take away an object of worship from the delusional bidders. These slippers, the bidders believe is the key to regain a lost sense of normalcy and can also make them invulnerable to witches. It is the ability to transform oneself into a forgotten sense of consciousness that begs for further analysis in the study of the narrator’s long lost relationship with his cousin Gale.

The story teller and Gale used to be involved in a serious relationship. This relationship diminished over time and now Gale is only a reconstruction of the imagination. The narrator came to the auction in hopes that the slippers would be able to bring his dreams of Gale into reality. He relates to a condemned astronaut floating helplessly on Mars. The astronaut’s life was deteriorating while the rest of the world watched through video. As the bidding begins, the narrator claims that he is “Bidding for himself,” and as desperate as it may seem, he finds the slippers to be the only way to Gales heart. At the height of the auction, the collection of events came to a peak when the narrator begins to become detached from the Earth. He explains this as when you are so close to something of such great importance, your own survival becomes fiction. This fictional detachment makes people “ Sell their homes, sell their children, to have whatever they crave.” It is in this moment when Gale loses her grip on the narrator and he drops out of the bidding.

The Narrator awakes the next morning refreshed and free feeling. He escaped the jumbled confusion that was the auction. In a chaotic room filled with infinite wants and unearthly desires, his escape detached him from his lifelong obsession with his cousin. It was in that single moment he was able to make the most important realization of his life and can now live a free man.