The Ruby Slipper Auction

When I left home to Chico, I was looking for a fresh start in a totally new environment. Living up here in Chico with my roommates in my apartment has given me an opportunity to show the world what I'm made of. A lot of things like the people and the atmosphere seemed like a wonderful experience to me. But, even when things up here are fine and dandy, sometimes I look back and think about "home". Some of us gets homesick sooner or later, and it would be nice to come back home whenever we feel like it. After all, there's no place like home.

In Salman Rushdie's novel, "East, West", has one of his short stories, called "At The Auction of The Ruby Slippers" (page 87-103) consists of a person who wanted these slippers at an auction. When I heard of that title, I immediately thought of "The Wizard of Oz" and how Dorothy wanted to go back home to Kansas using her ruby slippers. These slippers seemed to be valuable because "We revere the ruby slippers because we believe they can make us invulnerable to witches...of their powers of reverse metamorphosis...and to which the slippers promise us we can return; and because they shine like the footwear of the gods" (page 92).

Many people, like orphans, want to find their home, but they are lost out there with nowhere to go. "'Home' has become such a scattered, damaged, various concept in our present travails" (page 93). Dorothy was fortunate enough that she was able to get home using the power of the ruby slippers, but then we're not in a fantasy world where we walk down the yellow brick road to see the wizard of oz. This is the real world, a place where we can only wish we all had those slippers to get back where we came from.

The main character of the novel, which is the narrator, wished to see his cousin Gale (page 97) by getting these slippers. Something came over him and decided that he didn't need the slippers at all. He realizes that "In fiction's grip, we may mortgage our homes, sell our children, to have whatever it is we crave" (page 102). At the auction, the narrator decides to drop out of the bidding and felt refreshed and had that freedom. He let go of the grip of his cousin and left the fantasy world that many people seem to be stuck in.

Home is something most of us want to have, as it provides that sense of belonging and acceptance to us. Even though we don't have any magical slippers to bring us home, we can deal with what we have and make the best of it. It all depends on the people around you and the environment itself. Who knows, you might find out that home could be closer than you think.