Ending: How was the mystery (the truth about rosebud) foreshadowed?
Throughout the film Citizen Kane, an important theme is how one may have everything but still can't find happiness. This theme on its own helps foreshadow Rosebud along with a bunch of other features used by Welles in the film. The theme of not being able to find happiness comes apparent to the audience when Kane is given his new sled with Thatcher. While his mother and father were just trying to give him a better life, young Kane wanted was his beat up sled that he used to play with outside his real home. Now even though he might have the most expensive sled being stuck in the city, doesn't provide him with the snowy slopes to play with it on. The sled almost becomes Thatcher's attempt of showing Kane that toys aren't aloud in the real world. All of this gives us a hint that the sled was something of important value to Kane.
Another important theme that helped us draw the hypothesis that Rosebud was the sled, is Kane's search for his youth. The use of the scattered timeline helps the audience see before our eyes how time can change a person, physically and morally. Kane is an indecisive person who divorced his first wife in fear of growing old and lost his second because he was holding her back from being young. Kane's entire relationship with Susan Alexander is based off of her youth and how she makes him feel young again. By the end of the film Susan realizes that all the money in the world isn't going to make her love Kane and that's because their in two different points of there life. Kane's search for youth can be tracked back to one really important object and that is his sled. The sled is present in the only two flashbacks that go back to his youth, associating it with the youth of Kane.
Rosebud in the end was to be used as a symbolism for youth and Welles used Kane's childhood to foreshadow. I believe he did this to compare and contrast young Kane to old Kane. In the beginning of the film, almost all we see is Kane having a great time and enjoying being a kid but once he gets to New York it feels like time starts going by faster and faster. This is shown by the amount of time that passes between the and "Happy New Year" flash forward. Welles also cynical under tone comes through when he shows Kane the path to happiness far to late in his life for him to enjoy it.
I really like your thoughts on the meaning behind Rosebud and how it is integrated into the plot without revealing its exact meaning to the audience in a straightforward way. Because the film was organized out of chronological order, I completely agree with you that this allows the audience to witness how time can change a person, physically and morally. This was a constant theme throughout the film and I think it was important that it was shot in this way so that the audience could get a real sense of who Kane was and how he basically had to grow up faster than other children and focus on success at a young age. The contrast between how Kane started out as a young boy to how he was when he died is completely different and I think that ones childhood should be preserved as a time of innocence and making mistakes, something that Kane only lived for a short amount of time throughout his life.
ReplyDeleteI agree that throughout the whole movie, Kane's desperation for youth took control of his actions. The "happy new year" flash forward was very important because it skipped over his entire childhood, which suggests that he didn't have one at all. To Kane, Susan was young and full of innocence, which helped fulfill his craving for youth. This makes me wonder why Susan fell for Kane in the first place, when from the start of their relationship he pushed her to do things she didn't want to and who tried to contain her as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the sled, the snow globe was another symbol that represented his youth and foreshadowed the ending. I think the snow globe is interesting because it is a small world that which Kane could physically own and control.
I really liked the point you made about Rosebud being Thatcher's way of showing young Kane that toys aren't allowed in the real world. I had never thought about it like that before!
ReplyDeleteI also agree completely with what you said about Kane only being happy when he is a kid and then when he gets to New York, he is only searching for that youthful happiness he now craves. One thing that I hadn't really thought a lot about before that you brought up, was how much time truly had passed between the childhood flashback and then when the screen says "Happy New Year". It is true that you never see Kane from the time he is about eight to his early adult life, but yet a strong theme of the movie is Kane looking for his youth.
I really liked how you mentioned the broken time line throughout the film and how it lets the audience see how much can go wrong over such a small period of time. I also agree with the point you made about Susan, and that he dated her in search of his youth. Throughout the film, we see hints that he is looking for his youth, but at one point he even comes right out and says he was headed to the shop in search of his youth. It is also evident that the sled represents his youth because Kane was his happiest when he was younger and his last word "Rosebud" makes this clear.
ReplyDeleteI like how you immediately bring up how unhappy Kane was since he was little. His unhappiness was on set by being separated from his family. I really like how you bring up that maybe Thatcher is inferring that toys aren't allowed in the real world. I think that this is what created Kane to grow up so fast. I agree with you on how the movie foreshadows what "Rosebud" is because it was something crucial that he relied on for his happiness. I also agree with your conclusion on how Welles uses young Kane to compare to old Kane because as he's growing up earlier in the movie he's still enjoying his life a little bit, but towards the end his life is going by too fast and nothing to him seems so enjoyable anymore.
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