Crossing the Tracks
Sullivan and the girl are dropped off at the train station. We see his car crossing the railroad tracks to be put where the tramps get on the train. It symbollizes Sullivan crossing the tracks from his wealth to the life of poverty he seeks to explore.
Amateurs
Sullivan and the girl make their way onto a freight train. They can barely get up onto the train and they look completely out of place on the train. They believe that by dressing as a poverty stricken person they can blend in. But their actions symbolize that they don't belong and it creates a division between them and the people who are actually poverty stricken. We even hear one of the homeless men call them amateurs.
Coffee and Donuts
The girl and Sullivan arrive in Las Vegas to find that they don't have any money left to buy breakfast at the diner. The man serving them hears this and instead of throwing them out he feeds them donuts and gives them coffee on the house. It is a symbol that kindness still exists towards those less fortunate.
Flashbulbs
Sullivan and the girl are seen waiting in food lines and sleeping in abandoned fields with other poverty stricken people. We see a man taking photos of them and changing his flashbulb in order to have pictures for the story the newspaper is doing on Sullivan's travels. The photographer and his camera symbolize that Sullivan and the girl may be williingly going through the hard times of life, but at any moment they can return to their life, that this is not real.
Blood Money
Sullivan gives away a stack of five dollar bills to the homeless and then is robbed. The man who steals the rest of his money falls on the railroad tracks and is run over by an oncoming train. We see the bills on the tracks just before he is struck and it symbolizes this money is tied to blood, and that money cannot solve the true issues of poverty.
