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)?
“Rosebud,” including the items associated with the name, symbolize the purity and love in Citizen Kane’s childhood home that he desires to regain throughout his life. After being ripped apart from his childhood home, Kane is thrown into a life of superficial luxury. In the beginning scene, which is the end of Kane’s life, the camera pans over an abandoned Xanadu. Xanadu alludes to the luxurious, yet, empty life that Kane leads, in which he never feels at home. Further, the mise en scène depicts the setting to be cold and isolating with devices like the metal gate, no trespassing sign, and the stone interior of the palace. The portrayal of the palace creates a distant and unwelcoming feeling for viewers. Yet, the camera eventually pans to Citizen Kane laying on his deathbed, revealing that this uncomfortable and cold palace is a home. The use of mise en scene creates a conflicting image for viewers, emphasizing that this cold palace is not fit to be a home for Kane and thus, that a superficial life of luxury was not fit for Citizen Kane’s values of purity and love. After passing away, Kane whispers “rosebud,” dropping and shattering the globe. The snow globe, a plot device that is associated with rosebud, is the home that Kane actually wants to be in, which is the reason why his last word is “rosebud.” The globe has a winter scene and a small house that refers back to his mother’s boarding house that he grew up in. The white snow symbolizes the purity of his childhood and his relationship to his family. Unfortunately, he never attains this dream, represented by the close-ups of the shattered snow glob and burning sled at the beginning and end of the movie.
ReplyDeleteIn creating stories the idea of a “rosebud” is considerably one the most essential pieces in forming a great story. The idea of a “rose bud” stems from the growth of a flower in how right before a flower can bloom its buds, which is the phase where it determines the route the flower takes throughout its life, along with whether it will live or die. Rosebuds are seemingly one of the most important parts of a story as they can foreshadow potential roots that the story can take. By using this format it can separate a film from average to great as the simple idea of an alternate story evokes the curiosity of the audience which leaves the viewer wondering what may have happened. The idea of a rosebud is extremely prevalent in the film “Citizen Kane” in the scene where Kane’s parents are discussing whether or not they should put Kane up for adoption. This scene was a critical scene in depicting how the film would go as Kane’s father was initially not on a side as he wanted to keep the family united, but also wanted the money; while Kane’s mother was all for sending him to adoption to become wealthy and have their ticket to the “good life”. This was overall powerful to the movie as it not only created suspense for the viewers wondering what the family would decide, but it left the audience with the lingering interest of what would Kane’s life had been like if his parents had declined the adoption offer and they stayed united. Overall the usage of rosebuds and potential in films is a very powerful and effective way to capture the audience's attention to keep them interested in the current film, while also leaving them with a seeking desire to see a sequel, prequel, or even a spin off the film in order the quench their desire creating by the rosebud.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of a “rosebud” is a crucial part in forming a great story. Rosebuds are one of the most important parts of a story as they can foreshadow potential pathing that a story goes in. It is similar to an idea of that of an actual rose, and in the faze before it becomes so beautiful and bold, it buds. Using this style can elevate a film from acceptable to exceptional since the simple idea of an alternate scenario piques the audience's interest, leaving the spectator wondering what happened. In the movie Citizen Kane, the concept of a rosebud is quite prominent in the scene where Kane's parents debate whether or not to place little Kane up for adoption. This scene was crucial in depicting how the film would unfold because Kane's mother was all for sending him to adoption, primarily because she wanted Kane to have a better life than they, buth truthfully just wanted a charming chance to live with money in the hopes that Kane would be rich. Whereas Kane's father was initially divided because he wanted to keep the family together but also wanted the money, yet at the end he chose to side with the mother. This was a dramatic addition to the film since it left the audience wondering what Kane's life would have been like if his parents hadn’t accepted the adoption offer and remained together, along with leaving a foreshadow as they show the rosebud on the sled that was left in the snow. This scene, along with the scene of his first interaction with the singer Susan Alexander, which would sprout unexpected love for Mr. Kane, are perfect examples of the meaningful symbol of “rosebud”. A part of the story that makes it whole.
ReplyDeleteRosebud is a meaningful symbol in Kane’s life, and is not only a piece to his jigsaw puzzle, but is the puzzle itself. Rosebud represents Kane’s childhood and memories of simpler times, when money and social pressures did not exist. It represents a world where Kane did not have knowledge or control over his life. The word “Rosebud” was written on Kane’s childhood sled from Colorado. As the viewer watches his mother sign him away to Mr. Thatcher, Kane is innocently playing by himself in the snow. He is unaware what is about to happen to him, and when he is notified he instantly feels betrayed by his parents. He uses the “Rosebud” sled to push off Mr. Thatcher, but his father tries to reassure him. He speaks of the world where Kane is rich on the East Coast, something unknown to the little boy. However, as the movie progresses, it is evident that this perfect life is unattainable because money only brought Kane loneliness and pressure. “Rosebud” is his true self. “Rosebud” is who he was before fame and money were his only goals. “Rosebud” is his mother looking out for him. So, the fact that no one in the film was able to figure out the meaning of “Rosebud” only emphasizes how the people he had at the end of his life did not know the real him. Kane made up a persona of himself that did not reflect where he came from, and ultimately this false image led to his downfall.
ReplyDeleteInnocence is happiness that is what the movie Citizen Kane directed by Orson Welles conveys. In the film, a reporter is on the search to understand Mr. Kane’s final dying words. To dive deeper into what they mean in order to create a new huge story/scandal. Kane’s final word, rosebud, leads the reporter on a vague chase around Kane’s past leading to entanglements with various people, and places. As the movie comes to a close the audience learns, what the renowned word is a symbol for, Kane’s childhood sled. In one of the final scenes, it is shown being thrown into the fire to be burned down to ashes, but viewers are left on their own to distinguish the meaning. The sled itself is a small piece in the jigsaw puzzle story of Kane’s life, but arguably, it is the most important part. As more pieces of puzzle of his life are introduced, it is clear the only part of his life were Kane looked remotely happy or at peace was in his childhood. The burning of the childhood sled signifies the extinguishing of of Kane’s childhood. As a child, Kane is oblivious to world and he has no power or control over his own life. He does not understand what is to come in his future and how it will be shaped around the bloodthirstiness and cruelty of journalism. Then when Kane is taken or sold away by his parents, he losses sense of his childhood innocence such as his ability to trust others because his of parents betrayal. Burdened with ideas of money, publicity, and power Kane’s loss of innocence, in regards to unrequited love and trust, thrust him into a life of unhappiness and desolation.
ReplyDelete“Rosebud,” was the name of a sled Kane had as a child. When he was separated from his parents and especially his mom, Charles Foster Kane had to leave his sled behind, along with his parent’s and childhood. My interpretation is that the sled is not really a key to understanding Kane’s life, but rather a projection Kane has of his childhood, and the happy memories that coincide. Reminiscing on “Rosebud” is him trying to hold onto his past experiences. Considering his state of mind when he starts repeating Rosebud, it makes sense. He had lost everything that he cared about, the public’s respect, his first family, and his second wife. By clutching onto his image of “Rosebud,” Kane is trying to at least treasure his memories, as he has nothing but those left. Of course, in the later part of the movie, he isn’t dragging a sled around with him; Instead, he is holding a snow globe. Because he is still mumbling “rosebud” we can infer that he attributed what was previously on the sled to the snow globe. Again, it’s not the snow globe or the sled that mattered, but what it represented. But, because he lived such a material life, it can be assumed that he has to have something physical before it’s real to him. In the case of his power, he needed a trophy or elaborate parties to almost prove to himself that he was powerful. For his relationships, he treated his family as objects to be upheld. For example, he only held up his kid for the pictures for the press. In another instance, he only cared about his second wife when she was hurt, and it could have in turn hurt his public image. He lived his life entirely superficially, and when it slipped because of it’s lack of roots, he tried to slide everything back into place, instead of trying to ground his life in proper connections. “Rosebud” isn’t just a sled, it’s a representation of the only root he had grown from childhood. Everything else had been blown away. He may have had a mountain of topsoil in the form of wealth, but it wasn’t close to his Rosebud.
ReplyDeleteRosebud, the final word at the center of the film, Citizen Kane, is perhaps the most disputed term of all time in regards to meaning. So, what does it mean? I suppose you’d have to ask the ghost of Orson Welles; however, I am going to try my best to decipher the meaning. The Kane we begin with is very different from the Kane we end with. In the beginning, he is in the background with little to no control over his fate. He’s a naive little boy with no care in the world, just to play in the snow. However, soon comes Thatcher to take him to his ‘palace’ filled with riches, eternally altering the course of Kane’s life forever. As time goes on Kane becomes a corrupt man fueled by a thirst for power. No longer that little boy, he’s now shot with upshots and takes up the foreground of most shots he’s in establishing his dominance. By the end of the film, we see the ‘rosebud’ a sled Kane played with before he was taken from his biological parents. Rosebud could be taken as just that, a simple handmade wooden sled that Kane played with as a child, that regardless of what he bought could never be topped. However, I believe it’s deeper than that, when Kane was but a child he was a ‘rose bud’. Roses are known for their beauty, so when you have a rosebud there is potential for it to be the most beautiful flower to ever grace god’s green one. However, Kane was put down a path that was thought to make him a beautiful rose but instead made him a rotting flower, waiting for the release of death but begging to make a lasting impact before it goes. To me that is the true meaning of rosebud, the tragedy of fate, Kane realized at the end of his life that he was the rosebud but he just didn’t get the proper care to bloom, and that is the true tragedy of this classic film.
ReplyDeleteRosebud signifies the root of happiness in life. How come Rosebud, a few planks of wood and screws, was the last word Kane said. The answer is simple, Rosebud is his only connection to his childhood. Kane lived the majority of his life to anger Thatcher. Kane bought the Inquirer because it was a non-profit newspaper, which went against the wishes of Thatcher. All of his success then stemmed from this anger-fueled purchase. As a result, he started collecting statues. My interpretation of the statues is they are meant to symbolize a family. Kane, absent of a family, wanted to create one. This is because he never had a family that he grew up with. However, the statues could never replace real people, which symbolizes that Kane can never have his family back no matter how hard he tries. This brings me to the theory that Kane lacked love in his life. We see this is true, as he never genuinely loved any of his wives. The only instance in which he had experienced love, was when he was growing up as a child. That is why we see Kane buying statues. He is trying to relive the love he had once experienced by recreating a family. However, the statues can never bring him fully back to his childhood. The only thing that can connect Kane to his childhood, was his sled. This is why when Kane was on the brink of death, he said rosebud, as all he had wanted in life, was to go home.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of Citizen Kane, it is revealed that “rosebud” is the name of Charles’ sled. I believe that “rosebud” is a symbol for Charles Kane’s childhood. “Rosebud” was speculated by the journalists in the film to be something that Kane lost. The sled being a symbol for his childhood is proven in the scene where the sled is abandoned in the snow. This parallels how Kane’s childhood is abandoned when he is taken away from his home. Another point the film makes is that no matter how hard Kane tries he can not purchase time or his childhood. It could be said that throughout the movie Charles Foster Kane acts like a child. He often makes irrational decisions out of spite. For example, when talking to his opponent he is running against. He also acts childish when he fires Leland; Kane tends to act very petty. Kane never had a chance to fully live out his childhood due to his mentorship with Thatcher. Even in his mentorship he was rebellious towards Thatcher with the way he utilized his assets. This could be reflective of the behavior of a rebellious teen. I think it is also important to factor in how Kane had the sled still in his possession at the time of his death. This can be implied when it is thrown from his pile of stuff into the fire. This means he kept his slide around which in itself is a childish action. But overall, the sled was tossed without a care which suggests that both the sled and his childhood had no worth to anyone but him.
ReplyDeleteA rosebud is the heart of rose, the start of something new. Something that grows bigger until it is full in bloom. And as its life goes on, it only gets more beautiful. It changes and lets go of its original shape and grows into something more elegant and matured. Citizen Kane utilizes the symbol “rosebud” to explain and reflect how he rejects moving forward in his life. The plot of the movie revolves around the mystery of the “rosebud” and its connection to Kane. As Kane’s was laying on his death bed, his famous last word, “rosebud” may not make sense at first, but when reviewing the film, one can notice the symbolism within. When Kane is a child, he owns a sled, rosebud. When Thatcher comes to adopt Kane, Kane hits him with the rosebud sled, essentially rejecting the idea of change. It may be hard to understand the significance of this action early in the film, but as the movie goes on, one can understand that he is rejecting moving on from his childhood. Later in the movie, after Kane dies, all of his belongings are burned into a fire. His rosebud sled from his childhood, thrown into the flames as well. The fact that Kane’s last words were rosebud, show that he never changed and moved on from his childhood. His rosebud sled that got burned in a fire showed his lost chance for blooming as a person into adulthood. Kane never changed or bloomed as a person like a rosebud should. Kane was so attached to his childhood that even at his moment of death, he never bloomed, and his rosebud died with him.
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of rosebud can be many things, but I think the meaning of rosebud represents Kane’s innocence, and his mother’s unconditional love. The sled has a rosebud on it, which was connected to Kane’s childhood, as we see him riding the sled in the opening sequence when he was still a kid. This is reinforced with the dissolve cut that puts the sled directly over Kane as a child. Rosebud can potentially be the key to understanding Kane’s life, and provides the basis for his entire character. “Rosebud” to Kane is a representation of the good times, something he looks back to when he falls upon hard times. For example, he looks at a snow globe and mutters “rosebud” to himself when he divorces his second wife. This snow globe also reinforces the connection of rosebud to the sled and his childhood, as the snow is symbolic of riding his sled in the snow before his mother sent him off. Kane also connects rosebud to his mother, who is one of the only people in the film who really love Kane unconditionally. Throught the whole film, Kane is trying to reach this level of love again, despite if he was successful or not. Kane’s second wife points this out to him, saying “you don’t love me, you want me to love you”. When Kane gets obsessed with the notion of Rosebud at the end of the film, he has realized that he is now the antithesis of what he values in Rosebud. He now has no one to love him, and he is far from innocent or even a good person. He has ironically pushed everything that he wanted in life away from him, causing him to break down into hysteria.
ReplyDelete“Rosebud” refers to the sled from Kane’s childhood. We can see the importance of this item by how the camera lingers on it during the scene from his childhood, and at the very end as the camera zooms in on it while it is on fire. The term “rosebud” is also significant as it refers to a flower that has not yet bloomed, or is still young. The word and sled represent innocence and his want to return to his childhood and home. When his parents inform him that he is leaving to go live with Mr. Thatcher, Kane fights back using his sled. It is evident through this scene that Kane did not want to leave home and him using the sled called rosebud shows how his want to be home is attached to the item. Although Kane grows up rich and becomes super successful, he never truly gets what he wants. When Susan leaves him and he destroys the whole room, he leaves one item untouched. A snowglobe. There is a clear connection between the snowglobe and the sled as they are both winter items and when he dies he is holding the snowglobe and says “rosebud”. The snowglobe is his attempt to capture the essence of childhood and to quite literally contain it. The whole film being centered around trying to find what “rosebud” means is not meaningless, but instead speaks about how it is essential to Kane and his life. Even with all his statues and money and success, all Kane really wanted was to go back to the innocence of his childhood.
ReplyDeleteRosebud and the snow globe both symbolize Charles Kane’s childhood and the importance of where you came from. In the opening scene, we are introduced to the name ”rosebud” and the snow globe dropping on the ground and breaking when Kane dies. Later in the film, we can see that when Kane was younger, he used to play in the snow and he had a sled in which we learn the name on the sled said “rosebud”. The sled is a representation of his childhood and his life before he was taken away by Thatcher. It symbolizes the time in his life when it was innocent and simpler. The actual name “rosebud” could mean the moment when Thatcher came, it pricked Kane like the thorns on a rose because it was the moment his life changed forever. Thatcher came to take Kane away so he could have a wealthier life and become successful. However, the result of that change didn’t allow Kane to truly develop as a person. So when it comes to the snow globe, he doesn’t destroy it when he was destroying his wife, Susan Alexander’s room because it reminds himself of his childhood before Thatcher and how he wishes he could have stayed in the purer days. It reminds him of where he came from and his original family. Kane misses the times when he was happier and when he was himself, his true identity. Remembering his past and childhood was important to Kane and he wished he could have gone back and cherished it.
ReplyDeleteThe symbol of rosebud is used in the movie to symbolize Charles Kane's childhood and how important his childhood was to him. We can see the sled that the rosebud symbol is on during the opening scenes when Charles was a kid. Charles is playing in the back of the shot where we see him with his sled. In one of the last shots of the movie we can see a snow globe that says rosebud on it. This means that the movie stared and ended with the symbolism of rosebud showing how important it was to the protagonist. Towards the end of the movie when Kane is destroying everything in Sarah's room he stops at the snow globe. This is because the snow globe reminds Kane of his childhood or the better days of his life where he was more happy and free. Seeing the snow globe causes Kane to snap out of his anger which then turns into sorrow. Kane's last words before his death were rosebud which shows how he wanted to be back in his childhood home and misses it. Overall, Rosebud symbolizes Kane's childhood and we see is at the beginning and end of the movie because its so important to the protagonist.
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of “Rosebud” in the film, Citizen Kane, a representation of Kane’s desire in life, his childhood. A rosebud itself is something that has not yet fully bloomed into what it is going to become. Therefore, the idea of rosebud represents change or progression. It is symbolic of the sled and Kane’s childhood, and how his life is supposed to bloom, however Kane is opposed to this progression of his life and would rather relive his childhood. The word rosebud is written on Kane’s sled from childhood, the sled he was playing on in the snow the day he was taken away from home; this sled is also shown at the end of the movie. From the point where young Kane is taken is from home, is supposed the blooming of his life, to move onto greater things, the way a rosebud blooms into a rose. However, Kane is against the luxurious, rich life he adopts, the life his mother wanted for him, because it felt empty to him. Kane holding onto the idea of rosebud is him remembering the experiences and memories of his past because he is not content with his current positon in life. Kane was attached to his childhood which held him back from blooming into adulthood, and this was the case all the way up to his death.
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