Self-delusionment in Salman Rushdie's "East,West"

        This disillusionment of Ramani to find a sense of belonging and acceptance is further seen as he is attracted to the widow and the eventual persuasion of the widow that causes him to accept the offer of a free radio in exchange of his manhood. Ramani is kept in the dark and believes strongly that the offer of the free radio by the government is genuine when “everyone else in the country already knew, which was that the free radio scheme was a dead duck, long gone, long forgotten”. Ramani was so engrossed that he became to “mimic (the) broadcasts with a certain energetic skill”. The effect of Ramani’s fantasies and desires that he will get the free radio obviously shows that he puts his total faith in his own dreams and his beliefs while ignoring the reality that is around him. Ramani wishes to be able to construct himself based on his own desires and beliefs but this is met with failure which he does not recognize, furthermore, his life too was ruined by the widow as he was turned “into a thief of a stupid and terrible kind, because she had made him rob himself” of all his own future. It is clear that the construction of the character of Ramani in this story by the circumstances around him causes his own ruin, however, it is only in his own self-disillusionment that he is able to find that sense of belonging. This is seen through his energetic mimicking of the “All-India Radio” as well as his letters back to the old man after his migration to Bombay. The letters “were full of his new career” and “brimming with confidence”. However, the reality was that Ramani had continued to delude himself by the “huge mad energy which he had poured into the act of conjuring reality”. He does not even get his own radio but he pretends as though it is already with him through his own imagination.

        The second story of the “At the Auction of The Ruby Slippers” also shows the disillusionment of the society in their chase for their desires and their wants. The story too further explores the permeable boundaries between fact and fantasy, desire and its fulfillment. The main character in the story seems at first to be attending the auction of the ruby slippers with a sense of maturity by his own living on his own. However, this façade eventually breaks down as the narrator himself is hungry for the ruby slippers just because he wants to win back the love of Gale. The disenchantment of society is clearly seen by the people that attend the auction. From movie stars with their fragile “glossy, spangles aura”, to “memorabilia junkies”, to exiles and even the “homeless tramps”, the “political refugees”, “orphans” and even to the extent of imaginary beings all attending the auction. There seems to be a sense of unity that everyone all wants the ruby slippers but there is still a stronger sense of competition because that each wants the slippers for his or her own reasons. The ruby slippers in the story are the circumstance that causes a craze among society and causes the disillusionment. It is as though the slippers have become a magic currency and can grant the wish of anyone including the narrator’s that of to win the love of Gale.  The belief that the slippers “promised to take us home” is more often in the mind than in reality and thus it is more fictional.

        As the tension rises as the bidding for the ruby slippers increase, the sense of self-delusion in order to achieve one’s own dreams and desires increases also as “the money has become no more than a way of keeping score” and “one becomes detached from the earth” . It will be as though reality has turned into fiction as the “ultimate goal crosses a delirious frontier”. Society in his chase for its desires and wants has turned the achievement into a fictional belief. The overarching theme of the wish to find a sense of belonging is still present in the story as the ruby slippers are the key and the goal in order to achieve their desires which will bring them the sense of belonging.