Symbol of the whip

The whip is a symbol of corporal punishment. It appears at two different times in the novel. The first is during the intervention where Candice carried a whip that she did not intend to use on Louis. One of the men, presumably Jo-Jo, took it away from her and used it on Louis. Later, when Jo-Jo was found guilty of taking this whip from Candice and pretending to hit Louis with it, his punishment was twenty lashes with a whip.