Saturday, October 13, 2018
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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In the last moments of his life, main character Charles Foster Kane lets out one final uttering of the name "Rosebud." Although this opening scene is indeed the major crux of the plot, it is also a significant symbol to the overarching theme of the film. "Citizen Kane" tells the story of a man who becomes obsessed with dominating everything around him, never satisfied with what he had achieved. From newspaper mogul to short-term politician, to a baron with a whole lot of money and a castle, Kane literally has it all. However, through using the symbol of Rosebud, the film tells the audience that no matter how many material things or how much status a man has, he will never be able to repeat the past (just as Jay Gatsby so wished) and live in a simpler time. Rosebud is revealed to be the name of Kane's childhood sled, the one with which he played just before he is essentially sold by his parents to ex-banker Walter Thatcher. This scene is oversaturated with white and the sled is surrounded by a thick blanket of snow. If Rosebud signifies the simpler time of when Kane could still feel the love of his mother, then the overwhelming color of white surrounding the sled signifies the innocent bliss of his childhood. However, decades after that crucial moment, Rosebud becomes quite literally lost in the infinite amount of material things that Kane owns, and director Orson Welles conveys this to the audience through an extreme long shot of the mounds of Kane's stuff, zooming in on a tiny blip until the audience makes it out to be Kane's childhood sled. This scene represents that in the vastness of Kane's life, a single critical moment of simple childhood innocence becomes lost in his innumerable accomplishments and experiences. The irony is that Kane, for all of his domineering personality, just wants to return to a time where he can play with his sled again. At the end of the film, Rosebud is taken by workers and thrown into a fire along with much of Kane's other stuff, and in a final, miserable scene, Orson Welles uses an extreme long shot to follow the trail of thick, dark smoke from that fire. This scene contrasts perfectly with the scene described earlier in the film, and the meaning is that Kane's childhood is ultimately unable to be regained and is just as fleeting as his other material things that will burn.
ReplyDeleteWe all have pieces of our childhood that resonate with us throughout our lifetimes, and for Charles Kane, his piece of his innocence lies in the word, “Rosebud.” The plot of the film surrounds the investigation of what that word meant to Kane, and why it was the last thing he said before he died. While Rosebud was a name of a sled he was given by his mother when he was a child, the word has more meaning than just a sled. The word rosebud is the only word with the ability of calming Kane down. We see this in the film when Kane is destroying Susan’s room, and he says the word Rosebud and stops destroying the room. Rosebud has a lot of significance to his life because it was the only time in his life when he felt immeasurable love. For the rest of his life, he tried to fill the void he felt from when he was torn away from his mother and turned into a calculated businessman. He married two women because the first was not enough for him. Rosebud is essential to understanding Kane because many of his actions are directly connected to either Rosebud or being torn away from it. Rosebud compliments another symbol, statues. In the film, Kane buys a multitude of statues because he used them to replace human connection which he desired. In the beginning of the film, when Kane is in his childhood home, landscape of the shot is a house surrounded by white snow, and we see Kane happily playing outside in a deep focus shot. He gets taken away from his family, and we see the sled being covered by snow. This signifies that this was the end of his innocence, and because the sled was in his front yard, it says that is where his innocence lies. This connects with the rest of his actions, because everything that he became was because of the day he was taken away from Rosebud. Along with that, the word rosebud contains “rose” and “bud.” While this may have been a random word chosen by the writers, I believe that they chose that because the bud signifies that there was potential for Kane, but in the end he just became a rose, seemingly successful on the outside, but with a closer look we can see that he is all thorns. In the end of the film, the camera zooms into the sled burning in a fire. Rosebud is an essential piece of who Kane is, and it followed him through his life. While it did burn in a fire at the end, that is important to note because it contrasts the beginning scene of light and beauty with darkness and flames. Not only did Kane die, but he brought Rosebud with him.
ReplyDeleteIn my interpretation of the film, Rosebud seems to be a MacGuffin with little significance beyond pushing the plot forward. I believe this mostly because of the inclusion of Mr. Bernstein’s explanation of an old man’s memory. When he explains to Thompson that “a fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn’t think he’d remember” and then details a woman from a specific day in 1896, he’s illuminating the random nature of memory. I feel that the purpose of this scene is to show the viewer that characters will have connections to objects, people, and memories that don’t really define them. The mind is a strange and unpredictable thing. The connections it makes to events or objects can help define “what a man did”, but they don’t “tell us who he was”. That sled was a part of Kane’s life; it was how he spent his childhood winters. His capacity to control others, his desire for love, and his vaulting ambition is what truly defined Kane. The viewer can piece this together without even learning what Rosebud is. This is what Thompson explains near the end of the film. He perfectly predicts what Rosebud is: “something he (Kane) couldn’t get, or something he lost”. Kane couldn’t get the sled, as it was surrounded by so many material items that its relevance was dwarfed (literally and figuratively), and he lost it because he would never be able to find Rosebud with all his other possessions. Thompson then argues that it doesn’t matter what small “missing piece” Rosebud was because he doesn’t believe “any word can explain a man’s life”. I think this is Welles explaining to the audience that with all they’ve seen of Kane’s life, one more puzzle piece won’t make the difference. For all of those reasons, I think the jigsaw puzzle metaphor showing how we received Kane’s life in little pieces to get an idea of the full image is much more meaningful than any substance behind Rosebud.
ReplyDeleteMovie quotes from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033467/quotes
In the final moments of the film, Charles Foster Kane lets out the word “Rosebud”. While the term is not explicitly explained in the film, there are multiple conspiracies or ideas as to what “Rosebud” refers to. When I am thinking about its significance, I think of how it shows up on his sled, which was presented a few times throughout the film. I think this was a symbol of his childhood, which he dearly missed. In the scene where he was playing with the sled as an 8-year-old, he was young and happy; however, as he has aged, so has his joy so it seems. While he lived in the massive mansion of Xanadu, it seemed like he had some negative emotions- loneliness, sadness, or fear possibly. Rosebud could have symbolized his youth and the happiness he once had, all of which he has lost over time. One other instance where we hear of rosebud was when he was destroying Susan’s bedroom. He starts by tossing one of her suitcases or some type of box and then all hell breaks loose. His anger grows exponentially and tries to destroy everything he can reach in that room. However, when he comes across a snow globe (another symbolistic object in the film) he is immediately becomes tranquil. He utters the word Rosebud one final time and leaves the room a mess, causing quite a scene. Once again, this could have been a symbol of his youth as in that moment he took a step back from his life and reflected on what he had become. Nevertheless, the true meaning of rosebud remains a mystery that may never be solved.
ReplyDeleteCitizen Kane delves into the life of a man who dies in loneliness and pride. The final words of the protagonist were examined and questioned by other characters in the film. The word "Rosebud", written on the front of his childhood sled and gasped at his last breath, is a symbol for an explanation. Throughout Citizen Kane money, pride, and most of all an unsatisfied heart, forced away all of the people Kane held close. The only people that left Kane unwarranted were his parents. A man who had obtained all of the material riches of the humanly world was pushed into his fate from childhood; or perhaps Orson Welles wanted us to make this connection. The biggest change we see in Kane is in the beginning of the film when he is joyfully playing in the snow, and he is informed of his new living arrangement. To Kane, his parents’ decision to sell him to the bank was one made solely out of money. To Kane's mother, the decision was one of her child's safety. Kane lost his family and yearned for the love he missed out on as a child. I think that the reintegration of Rosebud, in spoken word and inscribed on the sled, were intended to remind viewers of Kane's initial conflict and downfall. The sled and Rosebud are essential for understanding the paths Kane took. All along Kane had never realized the roots of his personality flaws until he speaks of his sled, and holds a snow globe. The snow globe shatters after falling down the several steps in one of Xanadu's rooms. The idea of Rosebud is the analogous to Kane's only truly happy memory which was tainted by pain and literally goes up in flames. The sled is put in the background of all of Kane's luxuries but the memory of Rosebud could never be replicated. Kane's final words are a symbol of his regrets and emotionally devastating childhood misfortune. Kane’s behavior was repulsive on several occasions, however his inner demons are reviled in the end.
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