Pigs
Munny has transformed from a cold-blooded and fearsome killer into an almost pathetic pig farmer, first seen stumbling around the slop while his young children look on. When a young man comes with an offer to help collect a reward bounty, Munny is twice informed by his children that two more pigs have come down with the fever. The pigs thus becomes a symbol of economic privation and necessity in which murder becomes once again a viable capitalist transaction.
The Graveyard Tree
Munny’s farm is topographically desolate; nothing but wide open spaces as far as the eye can see. With one exception: a lone tree providing shade over the grave of his wife when full. When Munny decides to go after the reward money, however, the climate is cold and the limbes are bare, offering a fairly bleak opportunity for protection of the burial site. The incapacity of Munny to provide for his family is signified in this symbol.
Getting Back up on the Horse
A recurring bit of comic relief is situated as a metaphorical motif that serves as symbolic commentary on evolution and change. Every time the aging pig farm tries to mount his horse, he winds up looking like a slapstick comedian and eventually winds up flat on his back on the ground. In his earlier days, he was apparently quite the horseman. A gunslinger needs to know how to handle a horse in order to make a fast getaway; a pig farmer on land where nobody else is around for miles does not. The comic relief serves the serious purpose of underscoring the depth of the evolution has taken place in Munny. The love of a good woman hasn’t merely changed his behavior, it has transformed his very character.
The Kid's Bad Vision
The Schofield Kid suffers from a bad case of nearsightedness. This is an important narrative element in that it hamper his ability to be a successful gunslinger. This is also an important thematic element in that it hampers is ability to be a successful gunslinger. The Kid’s myopia extends beyond his eyes to his foresight. He cannot see past the immediate glory of being a famous gunslinger. As a metaphor, the kid’s myopia is constantly place into contrast with the Munny, Little Bill, English Bob and the biographer who all represent the literal consequences of not being able to see beyond the immediate. Fortunately, his vision is “corrected” by his first kill and he likely avoids the consequences visited upon the older characters.
That House Little Bill Built
A discussion of fear in the light of the coming of assassins to town and the preparedness to deal with them is punctuated by a recurring digression on the point that Little Bill may or may be scared, but one thing is for certain: he is not a carpenter. Little Bill is hard at work doing extensive expansion of his house, including building a big porch. Later on, he takes great offense to an offhand remark stimulated by running out of enough pots to collect rainwater dripping through holes in the ceiling in which English Bill’s biographer says the carpenter deserves hanging. Little Bill fancies himself a builder of houses and a builder of the western frontier. He views his rule of the town that elected him sheriff as the way things will have to be: authoritarian and with a definite predisposition to put security ahead of civil rights. Bill is a bad builder of houses and an even lousier builder of the West.
