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aspect in the last 40 minutes of the film was the way Orson Welles was able to
foreshadow the mystery about Rosebud. In Raymond’s (the butler) flashback, he
tells, “Charlie had so much, but yet something was always missing”. Although
Kane had material wealth, he didn’t have internal wealth. He could buy anything
and have anything he wanted, but yet that still did not satisfy him. Raymond
was not the only one to pick up on this, but Susan had also and while fighting
with Kane she screams at him saying, “You just buy me everything. It means
nothing to you, why should it mean anything to me?”. This is one of the more
foreshadowing moments in the entire film. Throughout the entire film we see the
two arguing and their unhappiness prolong, but we never hear her reasoning or
know exactly why the two are so unhappy. As the film comes to a close, we
slowly see where Kane’s unhappiness stems from, and Welles does a great job at
showing, rather than telling.
For me I kind of tied the idea of how Susan says he never bought her anything of true value rather than materialistic items, this made me think of his sled Rosebud because it was something of true value. Clearly it had a more sentimental value rather than money value because he said it on his death bead. I don't think though Kane is unhappy because of Susan he really does love her, but I think he loves her because of her youthfulness and joyfulness. I think that his unhappiness really truly stems from being separated from his family at such a young age and having to grow up so fast.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Logan; Kane is the way he is because of his childhood and because he lacked the presence of parental figures for a good portion of it in my opinion. I agree with you that Welles does a great job at showing rather than telling in the sense of how the film was shot and what we unveil at the end. Rosebud serves as a symbol of his youth and how ones youth is a crucial time in ones life to grow and to learn and be a kid, whereas Kane experienced that aspect minimally-he was forced to grow up at a young age and make himself successful in order to achieve his idea of happiness. I think Susan and Kane's love was real at first however, because of Kane's pressure of success in her life, it tore their relationship apart and caused internal harm for Susan.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Susan yelling at Kane about how he never gave her anything significant was an important scene. It seems as though throughout the whole film, the only two things that were truly important to him were the sled and the snow globe. The snow globe belonged to Susan already, and the sled was something he could never truly have, and therefore give. I think Kane couldn't give anything of importance to Susan because such a thing did not exist. What Susan did not see was that Kane was actually trying to give her her innocence, which he never had. That was something that mattered to him which reveals that he did love her, but this was not anything she could understand.
ReplyDeleteThis all ties back to Kane growing up under the circumstances where if he was upset Thatcher probably would just give him what he wanted. He never really didn't get what he wanted, he never listened to anybody expect Charles Kane. This then connects to his lack of trust due to his parents giving him away to somebody else to look out for him. Money isn't everything and his parents trying to give him a better lifestyle rather than poverty makes Kane inner person based on money coming first.
ReplyDeleteI liked the quote you put in your post showing that Kane never really knew what to buy for Susan and would just get what he thought was right for her, which shows just how self-centered he was. I also agree with the part you said at the end about showing not telling and how this film does a good job at this technique. You never see Kane really talking or discussing his own life, it is all done in series of flashbacks. Although this may seem confusing to someone who has never seen the film before, when you actually watch the movie, everything still is able to make sense. I think that is why Citizen Kane is such a famous and classic film because of the showing not telling aspect in which you touched upon!
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