Minnie's gold tooth
Upon laying his eyes on Minnie the first thing Lucius notices about her is her gold tooth among her pearly white ones. "The middle right-hand upper one was gold; in her dark face it reigned like a queen among the white dazzle of the others, seeming actually to glow..." Minnie' tooth is an attention grabber; it is a symbol of luxury and rareness. It makes Lucius want to worship the girl and it drives poor Ned crazy that the girl has something that represents luxury in her mouth. The tooth provoked wicked Otis to steal it and at the end he only forcibly gave it up.
Hell Creek
The Hell Creek passage is a symbol of Lucius finally giving into the non-Virtue, of him selling his soul to Satan and going on a path of losing his innocence. Lucius still had hope to go back home and make everything go away, undo everything before the car passed through Hell Creek.
The horse Lightning
The horse Ned traded grandfather's car for represents Ned's virtue. At the end, we find out that Ned did it to help a young friend in trouble. The horse is stubborn and doesn't want to run unless Ned persuades it with something. Throughout the plot we are left wondering what is that Ned is giving to the horse to make it run and only at the end we find out that it is something as ridiculous as a few sardines.
Butch's badge
Butch waves around his badge and makes everyone around him conform to him. The badge represents power being given into wrong hands. That badge makes everyone obedient to him and young Lucius feels anger towards the weakness of the adults around him when faced with that small thing.
