Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Rosebud
Rosebud is perhaps the most famous symbol in movie history. What is the significance of the name "rosebud?" What is the significance of the sled? Is it the key to understanding Kane's life or just one missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle that does not explain much at all? A meaningful symbol or a MacGuffin? Are there other symbols in the film that are more meaningful or complement you reading of the sled (such as statues, jigsaw puzzles, Xanadu, etc)?
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Rosebud is, in the mind of Kane, a representation of the day that he left his parents to live with thatcher. Once he leaves, he never has to worry about money for a day in his life. Everything becomes replaceable to him after that point in his life, and that is what rosebud represents to him. Rosebud represents to him at least, being stripped of a self-made honest future only to be replaced with an extravagant and unfulfilling life for which he did not work. At the time when it is revealed to him, he attacks thatcher with the sled because he is clearly opposed to this plan. This sentiment is echoed by Kane when he is talking to thatcher about his newspaper many years later. He says that he always choked on the silver spoon and that he would have probably been a good man if he were not given any money. He is then asked if he thinks he is a great man and he responds by saying that he made the best of the circumstances. This conversation makes it clear that Kane thinks he would be better off if he had to work towards his dreams and he blames thatcher for this happening. Rosebud to him represents a time before he was spoiled and his life was sucked of all ambition. That is why he reminisces of rosebud so fondly, because it allows him to think of what might have been had he not been spoiled. It is a convenient way to think of his situation, it makes him not have to be accountable for his own actions in his head, because he was spoiled and never had to work. This it is your fault my life is ruined attitude is noticeable in the previously mentioned conversation with thatcher.
ReplyDeleteCitizen Kane is a film full of irony at every turn. One of the last lines that is said by Thompson seems to hold great significance, “I don’t think it [Rosebud] explains anything. I don’t think any word explains a man’s life.” Through the reasoning of reverse psychology, this leads me to believe that Rosebud can explain Citizen Kane’s life. It seems that if the reporters knew the Rosebud sled existed, they might have told a different story. The sled is a symbol from Kane’s childhood, a time of simplicity for him. He was a regular child from a lower to middle class family, nothing extraordinary. Kane appeared to be a happy child. When his parents said Thatcher was going to raise and educate him, one of the more violent scenes of the movie occurs. It appears young Kane does not want to leave his family and resents the man who is behind it. Thus begins an identity crisis of two personalities that Kane struggles between. He was fighting between the regular child he used to be and the new future tycoon backed with any resource he could possibly need. Kane was most content as a child surrounded by his family. His mother and father tried convincing him that all would be well if he became a millionaire in the future. This message might have taught Kane that money could fill the void of where his family belonged. There are many examples of Citizen Kane attempting to fill this vacancy. Whether it was constructing an enormous estate or buying museums full of artwork. The most iconic symbol for this void was when the reporters were reading off the labels of the artwork. A statue worth $25,000 was stored in the same area as his mother’s $2.00 stove. Rosebud symbolizes Citizen Kane’s memory of his family and the endless hunt to fill the emptiness of his family with material possessions.
ReplyDeleteThough some fictional tales feature MacGuffins, object or ideas that are not true symbols and are present simply to drive a plot, “Rosebud” in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane is a symbol that conveys genuine meaning about Charlie Kane’s life, communicating to the audience that, though Kane seems to have been a fortunate child who is born in a poor family and makes his way to wealth and fame, Charlie Kane is, in reality, a human being deprived of genuine love and is therefore driven to pursue an endless cycle of greed and dissatisfaction. The word “Rosebud” itself is associated with an actual flower bud that has the potential to blossom into a healthy, beautiful flower. A rosebud is also enticing because of its ability to become something that represents love and human relationships, as roses are often given to significant others or family members to symbol one’s appreciation and love. Thus, the strong connotations of love and potential that are associated with a rosebud could indicate that young Charlie Kane is the Rosebud; he is full of life and energy and has the potential to blossom into a loving human being if cultivated correctly. However, connecting young Charlie Kane as a rosebud also points out the ironic fact that the man who dies alone in a near-abandoned Xanadu is the farthest possible thing from a metaphorical rosebud or a blossomed rose. Since the transfer of guardianship from his parents to Walter Thatcher essentially robs Kane from a nurturing childhood and instead pollutes him with an over-fascination with wealth and recognition, Charlie Kane loses the potential to understand and receive human emotion. His inability to love others because he was not loved makes him isolated his entire life, seeking him to see women as objects to own and collect and becoming isolated in the wealth that he thinks can fill the void left by a lack of love. The sled “Rosebud” conveys a similar meaning about Kane’s life. To Charlie Kane, the Rosebud Sled represents his blissful childhood, but, more importantly, it represents a time in his life when he was objectively and completely happy - even though he was impoverished. Ironically, when Thatcher receives guardianship of Kane, he substitutes “Rosebud” with “Crusader”, already imposing ideas of competition, ego, and materialism into young Charlie Kane. When Kane says “Rosebud” on his deathbed, it could be an indication that Kane’s goal in life was to replicate or “buy back” the happiness he has a child; of course, he inevitably fails because his greed and self-centered viewpoint on life makes him unable to truly value a finite life. In other words, his childhood sled “Rosebud” represents what Kane wants but can never obtain; given that he associates the word “Rosebud” with the snow globe that he finds in Susan Alexander’s room when she leaves him, the audience may be able to assume that Kane ultimately realizes that he will never be able to be content in life as Kane is holding the globe as he dies and drops it on his final breath, shattering the globe and his hopes of happiness and success along with it. Other symbols throughout the film also reinforce this idea. The statues represent the idea that Kane has tried to buy respect and love from objects that cannot love him back and that only drive his cycle of insatiable greed. His collection of statues that are eventually pooled together like leftover junk after he dies only highlights that the happiness he sought in his materialistic life is temporary and skin-deep, as they brought him no true love and are ultimately worthless to his emotional health and did nothing to truly enrich his life. The unfinished mansion, Xanadu, can also be interpreted as symbol for how his attempt to buy love, fame, and joy really only imprisoned himself in his greed, making it impossible for him to ever love anyone apart from himself and achieve the same happiness he felt as a child.
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