About Josh Silverstein Expertise I will answer questions relating to Ernest Hemingway's life or literature. I can also help with quotation source requests. No homework questions please.
Experience Mr. Silverstein holds a B.A. in English Literature and has been studying the life and works of Ernest Hemingway for the past ten years. His major work on Hemingway is titled, "The Importance of Being Ernest: Hemingway's Truth in Fiction and his Fiction in Truth." He is also author of "Hemingway: Alive and Well Online," an article exploring Hemingway's presence and position in the online community. He is the founder of "Timeless Hemingway," an award winning web site devoted to Ernest Hemingway.
Question what are the symbols that ernest hemingway uses in the sun aslo rises?
Answer Hello,
A lot of different ways to approach this question. I will give you one example of a possible symbol: the policeman's raised baton at the end of the book.
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 the want of each other. The quintessential Hemingway formula for love becomes evident: in conflict, there is resolution, and in resolution, there is conflict.
