Rushdie's "At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers" is a continuation piece of his beliefs on "The Wizard of Oz." There are many major allusions in both. In my mind, the strongest one is how the notion of home is a transformative one. Rushdie's belief on the nature of "home" is that it is a state of mind combined with physical elements that trigger this mental condition. His suggestions of how Dorothy views the nature of home is similar to his own predicament of finding "home." The similarities are fascinating. Both Dorothy and Rushdie leave their own home through physical turbulence beyond their own control (Dorothy and the tornado as well as Rushdie and the chaos of Partition.) Both characters encounter unique individuals in their setting away from their own home, and essentially, find a new setting to call "home" away from their own settings. Additionally, a mental transformation happens in both that make the idea of "home" one that is steeped in the mind, as opposed to merely rooted in physical reality. The other allusion that grabbed my attention is how Rushdie views "The Wizard of Oz" as one of the first "Bollywood" films, complete with fantastic images, deux et machina abounding, as well as a moral message that is simplistic on one level, but highly intricate and nuanced on another.
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