Horse racing

Horse racing, which is referenced in the title as "The Sport of Kings," represents the type of luxurious leisure that rich people are allowed to pursue in their life, as opposed to the labor that poor people must endure. These differing perspectives become clear when Henry withdraws Hellsmouth from racing as a sort of symbolic gesture, apparently forgetting that Allmon's very well-being relies on making money from the horse's winnings.

Cattle

For John Henry, a farmer who raises cattle represents a lower-class, and thus shameful, type of farmer or plantation owner (10). This belief is one of John Henry's many complicated rules about when he considers to be upper-class and lower-class.

Coal

For Henrietta, she considers the local coal industry to represent humanity's thoughtless destruction of the environment. Henrietta connects the continued existence of the coal industry as evidence of humanity's darkness, as the coal industry...