Ruby Slipper

It seems that America As well as many other societies are decorated with money and glamour’s things. It citizens are obsessed with the pursuit of money, and the happiness that it will buy us. We are trained to think this way, through advertising, as well as the representation of huge markets. We are taught to think we need a certain thing to be happy and that money buys it.

In the short story by Salman Rushdie, “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers” he pokes fun at today’s consumer and the obsessions we have for buying. In the story he tells of an auction, at this auction everything is sold including “the Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty, the Alps and, the Sphinx” (pg 98). There are all kinds of people there this time for the chance at buying the Ruby Slipper. The buyers say that “we do not know the limits of their powers. We suspect that these limits do not exist”. I believe this is a representation of how we as consumers for some reason feel a since of power when we buy and we let that take hold of us, and continue to do so.

The story goes into detail about one man who is very determined to buy these slippers. He wants his old lover Gale back who cheated on him and then broke his heart. He believes with the Ruby Slippers he can win her back and have the old Gale again. He begins bidding on these slippers as well as celebrities, and other people from all walks of life seeking the happiness the slippers will bring them. Towards the end of the bidding the man starts to think and when he is among the last few bidders he backs out. He realizes the money that these slippers cost is not worth Gale. The man has overcome his obsession and realized he can make it without her.

We as consumers of this planet continue to buy and consume on a daily basis with not limits or boundaries. I recently watched a short video called the Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard, who is an environmentalist, the video shows how our consumption rate is having a major effect on the environment and we need to slow down, and realize what we are doing. We need to do what the man in the story does and realize we can make it without all of this crap we are buying. We need to overcome our buying obsession and realize that the old saying that money can’t buy happiness hold true.