Citizen Kane

How was "Rosebud" foreshadowed throughout the film?

       Chronologically speaking, the first time we meet Charles Foster Kane is outside in the snow when he's playing with his sled, and this object is foreshadowed a lot throughout the film. Firstly, Rosebud was something that made Kane happy. He played with it outside in the snow, and despite doing it alone, he seemed content. It was another thing Kane had to leave behind, along with the life he knew, his parents, and a life without the world's sixth largest private fortune. The last shot of this scene was the sled slowly being buried under the falling snow, abandoned, just like Kane on his deathbed. Any chance of Kane having the life he wanted died that day, but he returned to the memory by holding the snow globe and uttering "Rosebud" on his last breath.

Secondly, the snow globe that smashed as Kane died can be seen in Susan Alexander's room upon their first meeting. The little happy slice of his old life (and last known location of Rosebud) is preserved in a glass ball, and only made its reappearance when Kane laughed for the first time in years. Susan didn't know who Charles Foster Kane was when she met him, and that is why Kane loved her. She liked him for what he could have been if he never left Rosebud, or that little cabin in the snow. Kane just wanted to be loved, and Susan loved the man who used to play with Rosebud in the snow, as happy as could be.


Lastly, Mr. Bernstein gives the biggest foreshadow of them all: "Maybe [Rosebud] was something he lost. Mr. Kane was a man who lost almost everything he had." Rosebud symbolized Kane's last scene of happiness, of a life where he wasn't everything he hated. He lost what Rosebud symbolized on the day Mr. Thatcher took him away, and then lost the literal object after his death. Kane lost everything that mattered to him- the only thing he left behind were objects, containing no sentimental value whatsoever. Kane's only goal in life was to be loved, and I think his last time playing with Rosebud was the last time he truly was- do you agree?