Glitter Heels Symbol in Kate Baer's And Yet
What Are the Glitter Heels?
In Kate Baer's poem "My Ambition Goes Off to War," the speaker's personified ambition packs a suitcase before enlisting. Among practical items like cotton sheets and army-green gear, the ambition stuffs a pair of glitter heels. The speaker notes her surprise: "I didn't think they needed / glitter heels in war." Yet when a commander searches the bag, "no one blinks" at the impractical shoes. The glitter heels appear only once in And Yet, making them a concentrated symbol within this single poem.
Where the Symbol Appears
The glitter heels are unique to chapter 2, "My Ambition Goes Off to War." They do not recur elsewhere in the collection. Their isolation emphasizes the fleeting, almost absurd nature of the image—a glittering object that enters the poem, is briefly noticed, and then forgotten as the train departs and the speaker begs for postcards that never come. The symbol gains power precisely because it is not repeated; its singularity mirrors the rarity of moments when ambition reveals its frivolous, personal side in the face of overwhelming duty.
How the Meaning Evolves in the Poem
The glitter heels undergo a subtle but important shift in meaning across the poem's short narrative:
- Before the departure: The heels are packed as part of ambition's identity—an item that brings pleasure, beauty, or self-expression. They represent the personal desires that ambition carries into a context where they seem out of place.
- At the inspection: When the commander finds the heels, the lack of reaction suggests the war machine either dismisses such personal items as irrelevant or recognizes that all soldiers bring private bits of themselves. The speaker's earlier disbelief ("I didn't think they needed glitter heels in war") contrasts with the commander's indifference.
- After the train leaves: The heels vanish from the poem entirely. Combined with the speaker's unanswered pleas for postcards, the symbol shifts from a sign of hope (ambition can still hold onto its glittering desires) to a marker of disconnection. The ambition has gone somewhere where such items no longer matter, or where the speaker cannot follow.
This evolution mirrors the collection's broader arc: small personal possessions of identity become obsolete when one enters the "war" of daily pressures—motherhood, work, social expectations.
Connections to Themes
Gender Roles and Expectations
The glitter heels are coded as feminine—glittery, impractical, fashionable. Within a military context (coded masculine), they create a jarring juxtaposition. This tension echoes the epigraphs that open the book: Anne Carson's "suspended moment of living hope" and The Highwomen's image of a woman "driving 80 / Trying to get home just to feed the baby." Both epigraphs show women suspended between hope and duty, much as the glitter heels are suspended between personal flair and the uniform. The symbol can be read as a refusal to abandon femininity even when entering a sphere that demands conformity.
Authenticity vs. Performance
The ambition performs a role—enlisting, packing like a soldier, submitting to a search—but the glitter heels betray a private truth. They are a "performative" item that undermines the performance of soldierly efficiency. This aligns with the theme of authenticity vs. performance, where the collection repeatedly questions how much of identity is real and how much is staged for others. The heels are authentic to the ambition (it wanted them) yet appear performative in the context of war.
Resilience and Perseverance
Despite the absurdity and the eventual silence from the ambition, the speaker continues to exist. The poem ends with the speaker begging for postcards that never come, yet the very act of telling the story implies endurance. The glitter heels, though abandoned, are remembered. This connects to resilience: the speaker holds onto the memory of that impractical desire even when it seems lost. In later poems like "And Yet" (chapter 35), the speaker acknowledges the war inside herself and takes comfort in a "bold heart where hope and fear are mingling." The glitter heels become a small emblem of that mingled hope and fear—hope that ambition still has room for beauty, fear that it has been consumed.
Character Connections
- The Speaker / Poet Persona: Her voice frames the symbol. She is the one who registers the incongruity of the heels and whose longing for postcards underscores the emotional cost of ambition's departure. The symbol reveals her vulnerability: she wanted ambition to retain its sparkle, but war strips it away.
- Ambition (Personified): Ambition itself does not speak or react to the clothes; it simply packs and goes. The glitter heels are the only hint of ambition's own desires beyond duty. They humanize an otherwise abstract force.
- Other Characters: The heels do not directly involve the husband, son, daughter, friend, or mother. However, the dual demands of motherhood and ambition appear across the collection, especially in poems like "♀ Bad Woman" and "There Are Days." The glitter heels can be seen as a symbol of the personal passion that motherhood often forces into hiding.
Four Study Questions with Answers
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Why does the ambition pack glitter heels in its suitcase? | The heels represent personal desire and self-expression. Ambition carries them as a remnant of its identity outside the war—perhaps a love of glamour, beauty, or individuality. The speaker's surprise suggests ambition clings to these impractical items against all logic, highlighting the conflict between inner wants and external demands. |
| What is the significance of the commander's lack of reaction to the glitter heels? | The commander's indifference shows that in the system of war (a metaphor for the pressures of life—career, family, societal roles), such personal objects are irrelevant. No one stops to question them because the machine is designed to process individuals into function. The silence also implies that the ambition's secret authenticity is invisible to authority. |
| How do the epigraphs (Anne Carson and The Highwomen) relate to the glitter heels symbol? | Anne Carson's "suspended moment of living hope" mirrors the moment before war when the heels are still packed with hope. The Highwomen's image of rushing home to feed the baby captures the same tension between ambition (making bank) and domestic duty. The glitter heels are a physical object caught in that suspension—both hopeful and impractical. |
| In what way does the glitter heels symbol connect to the collection's theme of resilience? | Although the ambition leaves and the speaker never receives word, the memory of the glitter heels persists. They become a touchstone for what was sacrificed. Resilience in And Yet often involves holding onto fragments of former selves. The heels are one such fragment; they show that even in loss, the speaker remembers the glitter—the part of ambition that did not conform to the war. This aligns with the poem "And Yet," where the speaker finds comfort in her own "bold heart." |
Conclusion
The glitter heels in "My Ambition Goes Off to War" are a small but potent symbol. They crystallize the collection's tension between personal desire and the harsh roles women are expected to perform. Through their impracticality, their brief appearance, and the silence that follows, Baer captures how ambition can carry our brightest, most glittering selves into a world that does not acknowledge them—and how we continue to ask for news from that lost part of ourselves.
For further exploration, visit the main And Yet page or dive into themes such as gender roles and expectations, authenticity vs. performance, and resilience and perseverance. You can also explore the speaker persona who narrates this conflict.