A Consumer's World

Everywhere we look in today's world there is a faster car, a bigger house, a more extravagant boat, and clothes that cost more then many of us make in a month of work. Have you ever bought something with the want to look better than the next person? It seems that this is some what of the mindset of today's society. If one does not have the biggest or best thing, they just aren't cool. It is important for all of us to sit back and look at the big picture. When we are at our end are the material things really going to matter to us? I think not.

In Salman Rushdie's short story "At the Auction of the Ruby Red Slippers" this concept is illustrated to the "T". At this auction there is pretty much everything imaginable for sale. The focus of the night however is the ruby slippers that Dorothy wore in the Wizard of Oz. Everyone comes to the auction thinking that these slippers will set them free if they obtain them. "Orphans arrive, hoping that the ruby slippers might transport them back through time as well as space...they hope to be reunited with their deceased parents by the famous shoes." (P.93) People have to realize that an object for the most part will not do these types of things. Even if they are the famous ruby slippers.

The narrator of the story is a bidder of the slippers. He feels that if he wins the slippers he will win back his love, Gale, who is also his cousin. As the auction goes on the stakes rise and he finds himself out of his element and backs out. A wise choice in my mind. I feel that if someone has to have something to get their true love, then the person they are trying to impress is not actually their true love. Love is not based on material things although many people in the world think so.

People today seem to never be satisfied with what they have. They always have to have the next best thing. The cold truth of it is, is that someone will always have something better then you. The challenge is to accept what you have and be happy. This is the key to true happiness and love. If one can be happy and confident with who they are and what they have, then no one, not even the richest person in the world can touch them.