How was the mystery (the truth about rosebud) foreshadowed?
The film starts out with Kane in his room and the camera closes up on his mouth as he says "rosebud". Right after this occurred, his hand drops a snow globe which then breaks on the ground; this expresses Kane's death. After this, the entire film is surrounded by people curious to find out what rosebud really meant and its potential to explain all of Kane's life. While this is being searched, many flashbacks occur throughout the film that show different parts of Kane's life to best represent his success and struggles and hope its influenced him. One flashback is when he was a child at his original home, where he was first taken by Mr. Thatcher. Another one is when he was forcing his wife Susan to become a famous opera singer even those she doesn't really want to. These are just a few examples of major events that occurred in Kane's life that show his real personal issues that could be potential influences from being taken out of home with real parents to a stranger who made him well educated and successful. These factors made the influence of having the priority to just be intelligent and successful in life to be able to be happy. Considering his mother wanted him to leave so he could have better opportunities and Thatcher only taught him business. Both situations leave Kane with no time for himself to do things he enjoys to make him happy, rather than relying on just the success and wealth aspect of life. To bring the whole film together, the last shot seen is the sled Kane played on when he was a kid just before Thatcher took him; however its on fire in a fireplace. This is after all the news reporters give up on trying to figure out what 'rosebud' actually meant. There is no one word to describe all of Kane's life, however, the sled represents his childhood and how things were more simple and all he wanted to do was be happy with what he had.
This was a great post that did touch on all the important aspects of "rosebud". I do agree that all Kane wanted was to be happy. From the minute we saw him as a young child you seem him having fun on his sled, and in his adulthood buying the newspaper and having fun with that. It does seem as though Kane's amount of fun dwindles to nothing as he gets older.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your points, and reading this post made me think about how as he aged, Kane started to suck the fun out of other peoples' lives, like you said with Susan Alexander. He forced her to become a star which she did not want to do and eventually caused her to be suicidal. So obviously, his making other peoples' lives miserable still did not bring him any happiness.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you expressed your ideas in this blog! Indeed, Kane never really felt happy, as evidenced in every flashback of the film. It seems that in the beginning he is happy, but slowly his happiness starts descending as time goes by. I also agree with the point that you made about the snow globe and "rose bud" representing a time in Kane's life when he felt happy from beginning to end. Good job relating Kane's early life to the scene in which he dies!
ReplyDelete