In the short story At the Auction of The Ruby Slippers Salman Rushdie shows the comparison of the famous The Wizard of Oz. He describes all the characters and movie stars that are at an auction for the magical pair of ruby slippers. Everyone wants the slippers for some reason, but the unnamed narrator wants to purchase the slippers as a gift for his ex-lover, and cousin, Gale. Possibly he could give her the amazing pair of ruby slippers, which everyone is clamoring to get their hands on as well, and maybe, just maybe, she would take him back. Salman Rushdie creates a parallel from At the Auction of The Ruby Slippers to The Wizard of Oz, conjoining the infamous characters to his characters and personal experiences.…show more content… Rushdie incorporated many hidden meanings. I believe, from my perspective, this story is a biographical story. Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay, India and eventually moved to England to study at The Kings’ College at the University of Cambridge (Salman Rushdie). His own life creates a similar feel to his book, “Both Dorothy and Rushdie leave their home through physical turbulence beyond their control (Dorothy and the tornado as well as Rushdie and the chaos of Partition)”. (Kannon). Rushdie misses his home and being in a foreign place causes him unease. The ruby slippers, in the story, represent his portal ‘home’ to wherever it may be. Rushdie writes,
‘Home’ has become such a scattered, damaged, various concept in our present travails. There is so much to yearn for. There are so few rainbows anymore. How hard can we expect a pair of magic shoes to work? They promised to take us home, but are metaphors of homeliness comprehensible to them, are abstractions permissible? Are they literalists, or will they permit us to redefine the blessed word? Are we asking for, hoping for, too much? (Rushdie
