Knocking (symbol)
We see Chris knocking on the table on the back porch at the Armitage home. It is a symbol of his being uncomfortable on a deep level that comes out through this gesture, which he usually medicates with cigarettes to relieve his stress.
Deer (symbol)
On their way to the Armitages, Rose and Chris hit a deer with their car. Chris is very upset by the sight of the dead deer, as it brings to mind his mother, who died in a hit-and-run accident. For Chris, the deer symbolizes loss, helplessness, and his mother. When they arrive at the Armitage house, Dean Armitage rails against deers, saying that they are taking over everything and they need to be killed. He uses almost genocidal language to describe his desire to get rid of the deer in the area, and later, when Chris is strapped to a chair in the basement, he sees a stuffed deer's head on the wall. For the Armitage family, deer are symbols of unwanted visitors to be hunted. There is a parallel between how Dean perceives deer and how he perceives black people; he feels entitled to hunt both of them, and then keep them as trophies of his dominance. For Chris, the deer symbolizes victimhood and vulnerability; for Dean they represent something to be hunted.
Tea (symbol)
Missy stirs her tea while speaking to Chris about how hypnotism works. This is a symbol of her creating a focal point, which is what allows for the hypnotism, without Chris' permission.
Blood (symbol)
We see blood drip down from Logan's nose after Chris takes a picture. This breaking down of the usual boundaries that keep our inner bodily functions locked away is a symbol that the real man, Andre, is coming out; he does so to warn Chris that he needs to get out.
The color red (motif)
All of the Armitages and their guests wear red, which is a symbol of their secret society. Red, of course, is associated with blood, and they don't mind spilling lots of it to get what they want. Chris, however, wears no red whatsoever and this is one of the things that marks him as an outsider. The color red is also often associated with warnings and danger; for example, a red traffic light tells you to stop. Chris and Rose are seen traveling in a red car while on their way to the Armitage family home. The fact that Rose is driving Chris in the red car suggests that Rose is driving Chris into danger, which is exactly the case.
Bingo cards (symbol)
During the auction scene, people who are bidding on Chris hold up marked bingo cards to place their bids. Each card has already been covered in dots indicating that it is a winning card. So, although only one person will win the auction, everyone in the audience is already a winner: they are wealthy and privileged and they belong to a group of elites.
Auction (allegory for the slave sale)
Prior to the Civil War, slaves were frequently sold at auction. An auctioneer would stand the individual up on a pedestal so that the assembled bidders could see him or her, and auction the person off to the highest bidder. In the movie, Chris himself is not on the auction block, but the Armitages have put a large picture of him on the dais. By auctioning Chris off as a vessel to one of the men in the crowd, Dean is revealing himself not as a brilliant neurosurgeon but as the worst and lowest kind of enslaver: a slave trader.
Labor (motif)
The Coagula operation, while providing a longer and healthier life to the person whose awareness is transplanted into another person's body, is not completely successful. It has the effect of reducing the drive and ambition that formerly (supposedly) characterized the person seeking immortality. Although "Walter" is very physically fit and exercises by running, he pretends to be a groundskeeper while "Georgina" pretends to be the maid. The condition of the Armitage residence suggests that "Walter" and "Georgina" consistently choose to perform these chores instead of devoting their time to other activities. Later, at the party, "Logan" asserts that, since the operation, he doesn't get out much anymore. Household chores, he says, have become a refuge for him. In all three cases, the post-Coagula transplant patients voluntarily choose simple, repetitive tasks involving physical labor. Physical labor, particularly of the low-status variety, is a recurring motif throughout the movie. After the Coagula operation, wealthy upper-class people voluntarily choose activities that associate them with a lower socioeconomic class.
The Sunken Place (allegory)
The Sunken Place is what Missy calls the deep hypnotic spell she puts Chris under, in which he cannot physically move, and is shown floating through space endlessly. It is an allegory for trauma, as Missy has just gotten Chris to talk about the traumatic experience of losing his mother. It is also an allegory for his lack of agency in relation to Missy. He completely cedes his ability to move and control his thoughts when he is sent to the Sunken Place. This in-between psychic space is a hellscape, a place that represents the fact that Chris' control is slipping and his life is in danger.
The film itself (allegory)
The film itself is not just a horror film, but an allegory for the horrors of racism and the difficulties of relations between white and black people in the U.S. Jordan Peele takes different tropes of race relations and of the meet-the-parents scenario and pushes them to their most horrific limits to reveal the ways that racism is a horror in and of itself, something to be escaped. Logan/Andre's encouragement to "get out" is an urging for Chris to leave an explicitly dangerous situation, but it also confirms the discomfort that Chris has already been feeling with the supposedly innocuous parts of staying with Rose's family. The entire film is an allegory for the horrors of the ways that white people use and control black bodies, and also appropriate and benefit from black virtues and strengths (as represented by the "Order of the Coagula" operation).
Run Rabbit Run (motif)
In the first scene, when Andre is kidnapped off the street, the kidnapper is listening to an old British song called "Run Rabbit Run." The contrast between the jaunty, up-tempo song from the late 1930s and the horrific violence taking place in the scene is disturbing, to say the least. Then later, when Chris takes Jeremy's car to escape the Armitage estate, we realize that it was Jeremy who kidnapped Andre because the car is playing "Run Rabbit Run" when Chris gets in. Again, the merry song strikes a chilling chord, set against a backdrop of blood and gore. The fact that the song is so tonally out-of-step with the events taking place only heightens the horror.
Camera flash (symbol)
Chris is a photographer by trade, and according to Jim Hudson, he has a special talent, an eye for what to capture. At the party, while talking to Logan, Chris tries to surreptitiously take a photo of the stuffy black man in a fedora, not for his work, but to send to his best friend Rod for laughs. When the flash accidentally goes off, Logan freaks out, seemingly coming out of his lobotomized stupor. He grabs Chris and urges him to "get out!" Then later, when Walter is about to strangle Chris in the road, Chris takes a photo of him with the flash on, and he is snapped out of his blind rage. He is reacquainted with his true identity and shoots Rose in the stomach. In both instances, the flash of the camera serves to "wake up" the black subject of the photo, as if the light of the flash leads them to "see the light" of what is going on. The camera flash is symbolic of brainwashed characters' coming into consciousness and snapping out of their hypnotized stupor.
