"X"
The title "Scarface" appears over a large “X.” That X becomes shorthand for the movie’s intended message that the life of a gangster is not life at all. Certainly not the kind of life any upstanding American would want to live. The “X” reappears after the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre recreation and before Tony kills number two man before he finds out that he is actually married to his sister. The “X” is the symbol of gangsters needing to be “X-ed” out of existence. As if this symbol weren't obvious enough, it is laid out for all to interpret in the scene in which a body shot dead by Tommy Guns helps to make an "X" out of the shadows on the ground made by an undertaker's sign. The most subtle use of the symbol occurs without it even actually appearing. When a rival gangster is killed after bowling a strike, the filmmakers do not even bother showing the X; audiences would have known automatically that a strike is marked on the scorecard with "X."
The World is Yours
The central thematic motif is the sign above the tour company which Tony points out to Poppy even before she becomes his moll. Tony is after the world, not just a city. The thematic underpinning of this symbol is what lends Tony’s story a certain air of tragic drama. It is his own hubris at actually believing the world can be made his that leads to his fatal and violent downfall.
Tony's Match
A simple match struck at the right moment becomes a symbol for the passing of the torch. As Tony is rising up the ladder of success to take the top job away from his boss, he sits at a nightclub table at which his boss’ moll holds an unlit cigarette. The boss flicks a lighter while Tony strikes a lowly match. The moll chooses the match to light her cigarette and with that the torch—and the moll—is passed.
Dancing
In movies made before the 1960’s collapse of all censorship rules, dancing was almost always used to symbolize sexuality which could not be shown. In Scarface, Tony’s sister makes her promiscuous availability known to Tony’s number two man by doing a suggestive dance of the period. Not much later, Tony confirms his status as number one by taking moll whose cigarette he just lit out on the dance floor, leaving the old boss sitting alone at the table. He barely begins dancing when he is overcome with rage at the sight of his sister dancing, thus confirming the continuing subtext that Tony incestuous desires for his sister which will later be revealed through subtext as a desire that is requited.
"Rain"
At one point, Tony goes to see a performance of the play “Rain.” Tony recognizes that he is essentially a monkey in a suit, but he aims to be more. It is all part of his desire to make that sign “The World Is Yours” come true. Tony speaks about how the lead character in the play—Miss Sadie Thompson—is “disillusioned.” The play thus becomes a symbol of how Tony wants to become more legitimate and thus makes the connection between gangsters and the kinds of businessmen who brought on the recent stock market collapse all the more tenable.
