The Zealot Consumer

Would you sell your mother? Could you be able to sell your soul even if you knew for certain there was an after life? Some people could easily sell their soul. Others might be reluctant on selling their own mother to someone. In Salman Rushdie’s novel East, West, Rushdie brings up a concept of “everything is for sale” (98) from anything to Statue of Liberty and the Alps to human souls (98). The narrator in the story “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers” is waiting to bid on a pair of ruby slippers that will magically “make us invulnerable to witches” and make “lost state of normalcy” return to normal (92). He is waiting to buy these slippers for his cousin, Gale, that he is infatuated with. Gale had cheated on the narrator and he wanted to “win back her heart” (98) by buying the shoes and “perhaps I might even click the heels together three times…murmuring There’s no place like home (98).

The ruby slippers are of course in reference to The Wizard of Oz. The ruby slippers had magical powers to help Dorothy return home to Kansas. In “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers” the slippers are wanted by everyone. Everyone wants to be able to catch a glimpse of the miraculous shoes. These slippers represent the starting of a new life. Whoever is able to bid high enough for the slippers will be able to change their lives tremendously for the better, according to the narrator.

At the auction, people of all kinds come out to bid on the slippers. “Behaviourist philosophers and quantum scientists crowd around the magic shoes” (90). Refugees, homeles s, and even movie stars “have turned up for a glimpse of the impossible” (90). The Auctioneers are not specifically mentioned. The narrator does not say who exactly they are or whom they work for. “Security d ogs and SWAT teams” (99), provided by the Auctioneers, wait for someone to cause mayhem. I would speculate on the Auctioneers being ‘the man’. ‘The man’ being big corporations or CEO’s of corporations. Making people realize “everything is for sale” (98) and to consume, consume, consume.

These Auctioneers do a very good job of selling everything. As I mentioned before anything and everything can be sold at this auction house, even “a pair of edible rice-paper panties in peppermint flavour…that had actually been worn by the lady” (100). This just goes to show that if a limited quantity of a certain item is desired and the demand is high enough, then people will pay however much it means to them. I believe everything is for sale. Depending on who you are determines how much you are willing to pay or sell that item for. “It is to the Auctioneers we go to establish the value of our pasts, of our futures, of our lives” (101). This quote pretty much sums up the American way of life.

Americans do have the mentality of buying and spending all their money on objects like cars, clothes, jewelry, and electronics, to show their value or worth in society. This story does embody the short film “The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard”. Leonard talks about how much Americans waste and throw away compared to the rest of the world. She also goes on to talk about how Americans focus on their primary identities as being consumers and not mothers, teachers, or farmers (Story of Stuff). Rushdie and Leonard’s stories do have a correlation with one another. People buy items for different reasons. Some to show off to the rest of society to make it known that he or she can afford nice things, others buy things to make them happy and hope that it will bring them luck or change their life for the better, and others buy products in order to survive and live comfortably. Make sure you buy for the right reason.