Throughout the entire film Citizen Kane the audience, as well as reporter Mr. Thompson, try to uncover the meaning of Charles Foster Kane's final word: Rosebud. Although Mr. Thompson never truly finds out, the audience at the end of the movie see the truth. Rosebud was the name of the sled that he had before he left his parents.
When this was revealed to me at first I felt deceived. The whole time with the flashbacks, I was convinced that Rosebud would explain everything, that it was this giant idea about Kane's life. In fact, it was something that the audience sees in the first flashback for a whole 5 seconds. After a minute or so of reflecting on what Rosebud actually was, it became clear to me that it was foreshadowed from the beginning of the film. How so? Let me explain.
The first flashback that we see, which is Thatcher's, the scene opens up with a young Charles Kane playing in the snow. It is in that instant that we see him glide down the snow with the sled, that we now know as Rosebud. The reason that it is so painstakingly clear that Rosebud was the sled, was because of how he felt during this. At the time he still lived with his parents, he had his whole life ahead of him. Then when he leaves everything changes. Essentially this is the last time in his life when he is truly happy.
I know that can be hard to believe since you may think he was happy when he got the Inquirer, or when he married (both times). Though I believe that was a false sense of happiness. When he got the Inquirer, it was to annoy Thatcher not because it made him happy. The only true thing that made Kane happy was Rosebud. We can tell that this is a significant memory because when Susan moves out Kane goes on a rampage. He destroys everything in his path until he comes up on a snow globe. He picks it up and whispers Rosebud. With that he quietly walks out with the snow globe in hand. After your wife just left you a small, seemingly insignificant snow globe makes you calm and collected.
The film gave us all the information we needed to infer that Rosebud was in fact the sled, considering it was his only true form of happiness. Which begs the question.
Is there only 1 true form of happiness for each person? Or is Kane's situation just an anomaly?
I agree with your main point, that Rosebud was the only thing that ever brought him true happiness, the only thing he ever actually felt love for. In answer to your question, I would say that it depends heavily on the person. I think in Kane's case it was brought about by his removal to the care of Mr. Thatcher. Otherwise, as he says, he probably would have been a much better man.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. I suppose that's why I basically had the same argument. He was never truly happy again after being taken away from home, so why should anything else have made him as happy as that?
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, and I also had a very similar argument to this one. After being taken away from his home, his sled, his mother, basically everything he loved, how could he be happy? He tried to fill the emptiness and loneliness with power and money, but of course, money cannot buy happiness. As to your question, I think that it depends on the person. Most people have more than one source of happiness (hopefully), but Kane was stripped of the place and things that made him feel more content at a young age.
ReplyDeleteGreat question Aaron! You can see how it provoked great thought from your peers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Max. I think it does depend on the person. Nice points about how Welles provides us with all of the clues we need to understand what RB really is. Though I think few viewers put it all together until the final scene.