The Shark (Symbol)
The shark—ravenous, inexorable, and capable of destroying almost anything in its wake—symbolizes the threat to capitalism; its very presence promises profit losses for Mayor Vaughn's town, which is enough for him to minimize the problem, increasing the shark's negative influence tenfold.
The Mayor (Symbol)
The Mayor is also intended to be a symbol. On the subject of keeping the beaches open despite multiple shark attacks, the Mayor, too, is ravenous, inexorable, and capable of destroying almost anything in his wake. The Mayor is essentially capitalism personified and it is not by accident that he can be considered the villain of the movie over the shark. The shark is a natural predator; the Mayor is an ideological one.
Theme Song (Motif/Symbol)
One of the most recognizable musical motifs in the history of movie soundtracks is composed of the two notes that introduce the theme to Jaws. As a motif, those two notes are nothing short of movie gold: all anyone needs to do is hum them and anybody else in the room will immediately get the reference. The music is a continuous symbol of the shark in the film; anytime we hear it, we know the shark is present even without seeing it, and anytime we don't, we know that the fin must be a hoax. This is part of the movie's genius in not needing to show the mechanical sharks to make the audience tense up.
4th of July (Symbol)
Those below the Mason-Dixon Line may be scratching their heads in wonder in how the 4th of July can possibly be considered the start of the beach season, but beaches to the north apparently don’t play by the same rules. Whether or not starting the summer beach crowd season that late in the summer reflects reality or not is beside the point; in keeping with the thematic sensibility that Jaws is constructed from the same materials used to create such 1970s political thrillers as Chinatown and All the President’s Men. The 4th of July represents above all else, America. The fact that the crowds bringing money to Amity Island’s vendors starting on that date narrows the meaning of symbolic important of the 4th of July down to American Capitalism. And the shark is its greatest threat, but not one that meets the profit/loss algorithm requirements for the Mayor to pay for the shark's immediate capture.
The film itself (Allegory)
Jaws is very much an anti-capitalism allegory. The shark is the threat to profits. The Mayor is the evil Scooby-Doo real estate developer willing to sacrifice consumers to keep business owners happy. That the plot twists on the developments that take place as a result of the 4th of July crowds underlines the inextricable link between America and capitalism and just how much threats to that link can bring everything crashing down.
