Tuesday, March 10, 2015
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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The name Rosebud is significant because it means the baby form of a rose. This demonstrates how Kane is still a kid. Through the name, Rosebud, his innocence is displayed. Kane carries this significance throughout his whole life culminating in his last words being Rosebud. Rosebud is key to figuring out Kane because without this, the viewer would not know who Kane truly is. Even Kane’s closest friends do not know the importance of Rosebud. Throughout Kane’s life, we can see that he loves controlling everything through his paper and the statues he purchases. We also see his aggressiveness when he hits Susan. The viewer as well as his friends can see all of the physical things. However, without knowing what Rosebud is, the viewer and his friends never really know the real Kane. He is a man who missed his childhood that was so abruptly taken away from him. This symbol is very meaningful throughout the story. Figuring out what Rosebud is brings to light many things about Kane. Ever since he lost Rosebud he is never satisfied with what he has. He keeps buying statues but they never satisfy him so he buys more. He has two wives but he throws away the marriages because he does not let them get close enough to see the true Kane. The gap in his heart for Rosebud is never filled because Kane does not let anyone fill it. Rosebud is the only thing that remains from his childhood with his actual parents, and he lost that. I do not feel like there are any other symbols in this movie that are more important than Rosebud.
ReplyDeleteThe significance of, “rosebud,” can be considered as being the missing jigsaw puzzle piece that is Kane’s perspective. “Rosebud” was the sled that Kane had in his childhood. It was the last thing that was in Kane’s possession before he was taken from his childhood home and brought into a totally different world. This was a piece of Kane that he was unable to get back. That is because even on his death bed he remembers “rosebud,” like he would never forget it. The entire movie revolves around this so called “jigsaw puzzle” that is Kane’s life. Each “piece” is considered each person’s perspective of Kane; however it isn’t until the end where we find out that, “rosebud” is really the missing piece of Kane’s perspective of himself needed to finish the puzzle. The symbol really doesn’t have that much of a meaning because it only is Kane’s perspective of himself. One of the main symbols I think in the film is Xanadu. It is interesting because this castle, should you call it that, was supposed to be larger than life. It relates to how Kane felt of himself. Kane was always under the impression that he, himself was better than everyone. With Xanadu it was almost like Kane was trying to fulfill something that could not be fulfilled because in the end Xanadu was never fully constructed. This just showed that whatever he tried to fulfill really never can be. Xanadu is one of the most important symbols in the entire movie.
ReplyDelete“Rosebud”, the name of Kane’s sled he owned as a child, has a great amount of significance and symbolism in this film. The name of the sled itself is significant because it compares the idea that a rosebud is the young form of a rose to Kane’s childhood. Before Kane was sent away when he was a young boy, by the wish of his mother, this sled was the last thing he had as a form of childhood entertainment. At the beginning of the film, we see Kane as a young, innocent boy who had a future ahead of him. After he is sent away, the film proceeds to show how Kane changes over the course of his life. He is extremely controlling, whether it is with his newspaper, possessions, or wife. He always wants to have the biggest and best things. For example, he wanted his newspaper to be the most popular. Also, towards the end of the film, he lives in a castle-like home, Xanadu, even though he and his wife are the only ones who actually live there. That big house was filled with a lot of emptiness. Kane seemed to have it all in terms of wealth and success on the outside, but one can see that his life was empty after watching the scene when he spoke his last word: rosebud. Knowing that Kane had this sled in mind at the time of his death hints at the fact that he thought about rosebud a large amount during his life. Understanding Rosebud is like the last piece of the puzzle to understanding Kane. Rosebud was so important to him because that sled was a symbol of everything that he lost, and could never replace. Kane could have had all the money in the world, but nothing would bring back his parents, and joy of his childhood.
ReplyDeleteCitizen Kane’s protagonist Charles Foster Kane is idolized from his successful yet turning out to be unfortunate life. Charles Kane’s achievements in the press categorize him as a millionaire during the early 1940’s of America. Little did the world know at this time that money couldn’t buy you happiness; as a result, many looked to him as a hero. Little did they know, something was always missing in his life… “Rosebud”. Rosebud was not only his last words of air but also the name of his original sled when he used to live out in the mountains of Colorado during his childhood. Early in his life Charles was introduced to the spoiled life of wealth, which led to a bloodthirsty hunger in the press market of success. But all of this success can’t be measured to his lack of happiness later in life, the absence of his childhood memories. Not only did this absence stick with him, it trapped him in Xanadu, his castle of fallen dreams. There, Charles spent most of his time with his “prisoner-like” wife until she leaves him for another life. Women who seem most important in Charles life end up leaving him. The only ones who are there for him are the hundreds of statues he has bought throughout his life; they just stand there and witness his depressing solemn life. The discovery of Charles Kane’s absence of the key parts of his life assess that money cannot truly buy happiness, no matter what you buy.
ReplyDeleteRosebud is first seen as a flash-forward in time when Kane’s dying breath expires the word “rosebud.” The more elaborate scene involving rosebud is when his mother is sending him away to live with another family and Kane is in the background playing in the snow. His mother argues that she’s sending him away so his father can’t be near him; this insinuates that Kane’s father is abusive and the only way to stop it is to separate them. Kane’s childhood was disrupted by one, his father, and two, his new family. He is forced to grow up all too quickly. Rosebud, we find out in the final scene, is the name of his sled.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the sled symbolizes Kane’s innocence and when Kane is taken away, his innocence is lost. He gets a new sled, the Crusader, and with it a new, rigid outlook on life. Kane is to be a crusader in his life; he wants control, which is something he never had as a child. This is key to understanding Kane’s life when his relationships are ruined by of his aggressive behavior. He cheats on his first wife with his soon-to-be second wife, Susan Alexander. When he loses the election, he still remains seemingly powerful. This outlandish behavior is even more evident when he demolishes the room, throwing glass, books, and pictures all throughout the room until it is covered in debris; moreover, the significant part is that even when he is supposed to be viewed as vulnerable, the low angle shot characterizes him as powerful. The loss of his innocence made Kane mold into a man who values power and money because he couldn’t relish in his childhood. It is in adolescence when people learn most about the importance of core values such as family significance, respect, and individualism. Kane learns instead that power gives you respect and fame. I believe that Kane’s dying wish was to have a childhood, and that is why his last word was “rosebud.”
Rosebud is a sled. To Mr. Kane, it might represent his loss of innocence during childhood or something else altogether – the significance was never determined by the reporter and as a result, its significance died with Mr. Kane. However, from the perspective of an audience member, the sled might represent something else completely – perhaps the sled was never of real importance to Mr. Kane and he was just thinking about it when he passed away. Whatever the case may be, the reason that Mr. Kane had his story told from those close to him was because this investigator went to look for Rosebud. Instead of Rosebud, he found information regarding Mr. Kane that he would have never been able to ascertain from the film he had watched previously.
ReplyDeleteThe audience can infer that the simplicity of Rosebud is perhaps what Mr. Kane wanted. While Rosebud is a simple yet elegant sled, Mr. Kane himself is the opposite – erratic, spontaneous, and strong willed. To Mr. Kane, Rosebud might remind him of a simpler time, a time that he longed for during his multiple downfalls. In fact, the only thing that Rosebud and Mr. Kane might have in common is that both are elusive – they both keep the media coming back for more. Nevertheless, the investigator will never know the true significance of Rosebud. For the audience, we know it as a simple sled. To Mr. Kane, it might be the thing he always wanted. Whatever it is, Mr. Kane will always be remembered in one word: Rosebud.
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ReplyDeleteAs the central goal of the film, it would seem like finding the significance of “Rosebud” would somehow explain Charles Foster Kane as an individual, or bring closure to his life’s events. However, in the final scene in the movie when the meaning of Rosebud is finally revealed, how much is actually explained? It seems like, despite the unexpected outcome of the search for Rosebud’s meaning, it was also an anticlimactic result that gave very little meaning to the events previously detailed in the film. That said, Kane’s utterance of “Rosebud” served as an important aspect of the Film’s plot, and was a catalyst for the events that led to the audience’s progressively increasing understanding of his life. More specifically, the obscure and unexpected nature of “Rosebud” made it nearly impossible to re-discover after Kane’s death, allowing the movie to progress continuously, and the lack of discovery not seeming unrealistic. It can always be said that the Rosebud Sled is a sentimental piece for Charles Kane because it represented aspects of his childhood, a childhood that he was taken away from at an early age. This childhood is something Kane remembered with great importance until the day he died, but it was the childhood memories and the longing for a conventional upbringing that Kane had the emotional attachment to, not the sled. If Rosebud had never existed, any other object that Kane could attribute to childhood memories would replace it, but very few items are able to play a similar role in the plot of the film. “Rosebud” could have represented almost anything, from items, to pets, to nicknames, and potential lovers of Mr. Kane’s past.
ReplyDeleteIn this sense, “Rosebud” no longer represented the sled, and to Charles Kane it most likely stopped being about a material object long before he uttered his last words. “Rosebud” was the childhood that he never lived, the longing that steered while his determination floored the gas, and led to the events witnessed in the movie. As a sled, Rosebud is meaningless and merely a McGuffin, but the deeper aspects of its significance to Kane may have been the reason that his life occurred the way it did, and very few things have greater importance than that.
In Citizen Kane, the "rosebud" sled is an essential part in understanding Kane's life and what is important to him. At the start of the movie, the viewer learns that 'rosebud' was his last word before he died, which sends the news men on a quest to find the significance of the word. The importance of the word to Kane is obvious as that is what he is thinking about on his deathbed. Rosebud was the name of Kane's wooden sled from his childhood. He was using the sled the day that Thatcher came to take him from his parents and lower-class life to become a rich man. While Thatcher is talking with Kane's parents, the picture is in deep focus and the viewer can see Kane playing with the sled in the background. He looks completely content while he plays with the simple toy as if he wants nothing more in the world. He is completely unaware that minutes later his life will never be this simple and easy again. Through his wealth, success, failed relationships, and unhappiness, all he truly wants is to go back to his house in the west and play outside with his sled. Even though he became a rich, famous man in control of the media, he was most content during his childhood when he lived a simple life. In the movie, everyone pretends they know who Kane truly is, but in reality his true self was only expressed in his early life before he became masked by his wealth. We learn about different puzzle pieces of Kane's life from many perspectives, but no one knew him during his childhood. In order to understand the significance of rosebud and who Kane truly is we must look past his fame and fortune, and back to his humble roots.
ReplyDelete‘Rosebud’ is the most meaningful symbol in the movie and not a MacGuffin. The rosebud represents Kane’s childhood and emotional security. As a child, Kane was poor but happy. The snow-globe goes hand-in-hand with the significance of rosebud, as it also represents the snowy and quaint happiness of his childhood. A rosebud is a small, underdeveloped or even stunted version of a proper rose, reflecting Kane’s personality and how his parents giving him away to Thatcher damaged his personal growth and left him an emotionally-stunted adult. The rosebud is what shows the audience the real side to his character, as it’s the only thing we see him say that isn’t in a flashback narrated from someone else’s perspective. The reporters can’t understand the significance of his last word because it is in no way related to his glitzy public life which is outwardly easier to comprehend than his inner-character. It’s essentially a reminder than Kane is a human who is lonely and sad. At the end, he sled is burned because it is perceived as rubbish and is only connected to his under-privileged origins which the public is not interested in. Another important rosebud significance is how he knocks over Thatcher with it, going against the rules and the norm like his later personality. The purpose of a sled is for sledding down hills, representing how his life is a downhill slide. It is also significant that sleds were probably popular toys for children in 1870s Colorado, increasing its personal meaning for Kane and reflects how he loses everything he loves.
ReplyDeleteIn Citizen Kane, “rosebud” is the last work Charles Foster Kane says before he dies. But why is “rosebud” so important? “Rosebud” is a key element to fully understand Kane and how his childhood impacted his later life. It is not until the end of the movie that we learn the meaning of “rosebud”: the name of Kane’s sled he used throughout his childhood. In one particular scene, we see Kane sledding on “rosebud” when Walter Thatcher comes to take Kane away from his parents and his home. Although we only learn the meaning of “rosebud” at the end of the film, one might assume that “rosebud” (the sled) represents Kane’s childhood, a time when Kane was happy and free from the obstacles of life. The moment Thatcher removes Kane from his home is the moment that Kane is no longer a ‘child’. Although leaving with Thatcher ultimately leads to Kane’s major wealth and success, it does not lead to happiness. Kane amasses a large wealth, a newspaper, and various other companies. That being said, Kane also ends up cheating on his first wife and also leads his second wife to alcoholism. One might suggest that Kane’s wealth is the root cause to all of his misery and unhappiness. His wealth derives from that moment Kane is removed from his house, so it is also fair to say that Kane would have easily given up the money just to have a happier life. “Rosebud” represents all that Kane used to have, his easier life without the responsibilities of wealth, and a distant memory.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the significance of the sled is that it is a simile to the childhood that Kane lost. It is known that the rosebud is the one possession that Kane has that was from his mother, the person who sends him away because she wants him to have a better life away from this, whether it’s so he can learn how to properly use his fortune of an inheritance that he is destined to receive; there is also the more hidden factor, she wants to keep him away from his father, who reveals himself to be abusive. Alas, when the young Kane is told that he is leaving his home, he has a fit; he doesn’t want to leave his parents, his home, but he has no choice. He leaves his home and his childhood as he knows it behind and is thrown into world of business and wealth that requires him to learn how to use his wealth properly, and how to be successful and achieve wealth as opposed to the modest life in snowy Colorado, where Kane could be with the person who loved him the most, his mother. In my opinion, when see that “rosebud” is the sled, we may not be finding the key, but it is a crucial piece of the great jigsaw puzzle because it allows us, the viewers to get a glimpse of Kane’s perspective. The sled, symbolizes comfort, and Kane’s mother’s undying love for him. In the film, we see how Kane is constantly seeking to be loved by people, but he is unable love them back and therefor the people around him grow to dislike him and distance themselves from him, this of course deepens Kane’s inner grief. He therefore looks back to his mother, the one person who loves him unconditionally, no matter what kind of person he is, but like the sled being buried deep in the snow, so does her love, because she never sees her son again, and can therefor never be there for him to provide the love and affection that he needs growing up.
ReplyDeleteThe name Rosebud represents Kane's lack of love for others but his love for himself. A rose is supposed to symbolize love and specifically ones love for someone else. Giving someone a rose shows them your love for them. But Kane never gives up his sled. The sled is Kane's "rose" hence its name Rosebud. Kane does not love anyone but himself. We see that in a scene with his second wife Susan. After all the poor reviews of Susan's singing Susan, understandably, wants to quit. Kane does not allow her to because he does not want to hurt his public image. When the affair was first publicly released the title page read "Kane Marries Singer". Kane would not allow her to quit because he refused to be made a fool. She had to remain a singer so that he would keep his public image intact. Although Rosebud was a powerful symbol, I do not believe that it was the most powerful symbol in the film. Xanadu symbolized Kane’s approach to the modern world and how he lived. Xanadu was completely isolated from the world and the media. When Kane did not like the way things were working out he would retreat to his isolated place, his kingdom. I say kingdom because Xanadu was Kane’s world, where everything would go his way which was exactly how Kane wanted to live.
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