Ruby Slippers on eBay

            Auctions, people flock to them, trying to out bid the highest to get their prize. There is a new type of auction that has taken over, eBay. Anything you could ever think of can be found and bought on eBay. Collectables, cars, movies, shoes, clothes, jewelry, books, everything, the item goes to the highest bidder. This website goes along with encouraging  the United States people, being the trained consumers that they are, to buy buy buy, it is not just the United States that is involved with this eBay craze, the whole world takes part in the internet auction. Salman Rushdie’s “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers” is a short story filled with satire on this subject. Rushdie’s short story satires the subject of the spending habits of people.

            The story is about a young man that narrates the story of him going to an auction where people flock to try and find happiness. His goal is to put in the highest bid for the red ruby slippers of the Wizard of Oz. He’s hoping that if he wins the slipper he will when back the love of his life, which happens to be his cousin. The narrator explains the chaos of the auctions sale room. “The Grand Saleroom of the Auctioneers is the beating heart of the earth. If you stand here for long enough all the wonders of the world will pass by. In the Grand Saleroom, in recent years, we have witnessed the auction of the Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty, the Alps, and the Sphinx” (Rushdie 98). Rushdie’s satire is to over exaggerate the situation of auctions. People go to these auctions to bid on objects that they believe will bring them all the happiness they are looking for. The ruby slippers represent happiness for the narrator. The more auctions you win, the happier you will be. “Everything is for sale… in the court room of demand” (Rushdie 99). This is almost a spitting image of the eBay website that millions visit today. This relates to the need for people to be massive consumers. A different outlook on this subject is one from Annie Leonard.

            Annie Leonard is one who studies the impact of production and consumption of products in the United States to the earth. One of her main arguments is that our society has been set up to be workaholics who don’t have time but to watch television; which means lots of advertisements, and to shop. She says that people are looking for happiness, but look for it by buying needless stuff. This in turn hurts the planet, because most of the stuff that is bought is useless and thrown out shortly after being bought. “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers” and eBay are both examples of how people go crazy trying to buy the most fulfilling object.  This combined with Rushdie’s short story shows that people look for happiness in the stuff that they own, and buy. In reality all this does is leaves people wanting more, so they buy and shop more.