Citizen Kane

"Rosebud." - The last word of a dying man that starts an intrusive investigation into that man's extraordinary life.

'Citizen Kane' is a remarkably significant film that conveys many themes and motifs. It offers a damning verdict of the 'American Dream' and materialism while also mourning the loss of childhood and innocence.

I have read that 'Citizen Kane' was one of the first movies to oppose the traditionally positive view of the 'American Dream' to gain financial prosperity and material luxury. Kane's accumulation of wealth and material goods is done for love and control, not happiness. For Kane the 'American Dream' is seen as a hollow one. He is depicted as a happy child playing in the snow during his childhood where his family were poor and had no elements of materialism. This is in stark contrast to his death where his seen as an lonely isolated figure, surrounded not by the love he craves, but by his material possessions that symbolize all that is wrong about the perception of the 'American Dream'.

I wonder whether Kane's obsession with acquiring statues and other possessions portrays his want, his need perhaps, to control people. He is able to control them whereas in the real world he found difficulty controlling things the way he wanted. His mother sending him away, his failed political career, and Susan's failure as an opera singer. In his lavish palace Xanadu, he is able to exert control over everything.

I believe the fact that Kane's last words 'rosebud' represents his realization that the life he has led hasn't given him the happiness or love he craved. It conveys the loss of his childhood innocence, where he was happy, playing in the snow with his sled 'rosebud'. This is contrasted with his lonely existence in the grand palace of Xanadu. The significance of 'rosebud' to Kane is of paramount importance. It is the only love he truly encountered.