Citizen Kane Case

The plot is revealed to the viewer in bits and pieces at a time, each time Welles intended for the audience to derive their own perception of each events and the characters. In fact most of the movie was a series of montages about events in Charles Foster Kane's life, and through the flashback of these events, we're able to delve deeper into the larger than life character Kane, played by the director himself Orsen Welles. The flashback includes Kane's childhood at the wintery boarding house when he was ripped away from his parents to go live in the city. The viewer was then taken into the city to witness Kane's entrance in the news industry, how motivated and idealistic he was to change the industry at the start of his career, how the young and defiant Kane became a mogul in such a brief time. We then witness the married-midlife Kane who took a shot at the political arena, but failed the attempt upon the discovery of a mistress. Again Kane remained defiant, choosing his mistress over career, doing what he pleases rather than doing what was right for his wife and family. Then finally, we witnessed Kane's fall from the public view, from his colleagues and friends, to the possessive control over Susan, forcing her to do what he thought was best for his image until she left him. The mystery of the whole film is solved in the final scene, Kane's sled "Rosebud" is tossed in the fire along with things that were considered of no value. As smoke rises from the furnace at Xenadu, the memory of a man slowly fades away. It was very gratifying to find answers to this mystery however it only engaged more questions. Was Kane a victim of circumstances? Did removing the boy from his happy home starts the chain of events? Welles left us room to think more deeply about Kane's character.

The second aspect that made this such a great film was the character Charles Foster Kane. I think the director intended it for the audience to develop a perception of Kane through each flashback. Welles wanted us to be engaged in character development, to think for ourselves and quantify what kind of man Kane was. To me he Kane is a man in constantly in search for something and ironically always came up empty. Kane was a very wealthy man but he was poor in affection and love, the love by his parents and his wives. He was respected by the public but hated by those were close to him, his business partners and close friends ended up staying distant from him. He was full of righteous ideology but became corrupted by the power. He always wanted control but never had any in the end. Kane always wanted more and more but ended up with less and less every single time, this made it difficult for me to find any sympathy for Kane. He was always greedy and selfish. He was never content up to the final when he realized that his happiest moments were at the boarding house. I think the character Kane captures our human nature very well. We