In The Sun Also Rises, the policemans raised baton is symbolic of what?
The mounted policeman is representative of long withstanding authority, of the bureaucratic society that sent Jake off to war to be wounded. The taxi must yield to the policeman’s authority, though not entirely, for the car slowed suddenly rather than stopping suddenly. This slowing, however, is just enough of an impediment. The message here is simply that love is fragile and it doesn’t take much to stunt its growth or hinder its progression. The policeman’s raised baton some have seen as symbolic of an erect penis. Only after the baton is raised (the penis erect), are Jake and Brett delivered from their separateness and pressed together. Therefore, from such a reading, it is Jake’s sexual inadequacies that prevent the further blossoming of his relationship with Brett. There lies the conflict. The resolution is in the realization by both parties that what could have been will never be. In that realization, lies further conflict, as Jake and Brett must continue to find ways to resist th
