Wednesday, March 6, 2013
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)?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I would argue that “Rosebud” is indeed ultimately a very meaningful symbol that – if it does not explain Kane’s life – certainly ties much of it together in an incredibly profound and fairly unexpected way. The sled represents the thing which Kane cares most about but has been separated from for almost his entire life (bringing new meaning to Bernstein’s epithet of, “a man who had everything he ever wanted and lost it all”), the innocence and simple pleasure of childhood. In Colorado, little Charlie could be a boy with few cares and concerns; he could focus on his games and fantasies and not have to worry about the affairs of others. However, from the moment he was adopted by Mr. Thatcher, this sweet world was lost, replaced by a life of business, travel, and material goods. Instead of being able to derive pleasure from his imagination alone, Kane became the self we see for much of the movie, a man focused on buying, building, selling, earning, collecting, and controlling tangible things. He provides himself no choice but to spread the paper’s circulation at any cost, he would not allow himself to do anything other than build an opera-house for Susan, and the creation of Xanadu is a task which he feels he is obligated to do; Kane has been molded into a man who sees the world as a place of stuff – humans and objects alike – and thus tries without ultimately succeeding to create joy out of material goods. As Leland berates Kane, “You talk about the people as though you owned them, as though they belong to you”. To Kane, on a subliminal level, the masses are simply one more object to attain, one more good from which, perhaps, he will gain some pleasure, just like the newspaper (“I think would be fun to run a newspaper”), Susan (“You never gave me anything in your whole life! You just tried to bribe me into giving you something!”), and so many of his other endeavors.
ReplyDeleteRe-watching the film, it is interesting to notice the little ways in which Wells hints at the identity of Rosebud throughout before the revelatory closing moments. First there are several meaningful shots of the sled during the sequence about Kane’s childhood. While the sled is difficult to see for much of the scene, the penultimate transition in Colorado is a lap dissolve from Charlie’s resolute face to the sled sitting in the snow, one on top of the other. At that moment, the sled is in Kane’s mind, it is a part of his identity. As the viewers ultimately know, this sled sticks with him for his entire life, always remaining present in the deep recesses of his soul. The sled then appears onscreen for several seconds, dissolving and becoming increasingly snow-covered to show time’s passage. This image is also quite symbolic: the burying of the sled with snow represents the metaphoric burying of Kane’s happy childhood under a world of finance, industry, and adulthood. Not until he shakes the snow-globe much later in the film (another slightly less subtle hint at the identity of Rosebud) is this side of Kane unearthed. Until then, the moment at which he loses what should be the most important part of his life, he cannot grasp what it was that truly mattered to him and brought him joy. The other quiet hint at Rosebud’s identity (unless there are some that I missed, which is very likely) comes, ironically, at Kane’s first encounter with Susan. “I was going to a warehouse to look through some old things”, he tells her (or something along those lines). What things? Why, perhaps, his childhood sleigh, the most important thing he ever had in his life. And, when he starts an affair with Susan, he completely tosses that out the window, literally not going to the warehouse to go into her apartment. By making such a bad choice, Kane tosses aside his childhood innocence completely, only to be regained when Susan leaves him many years later. Welles keeps Rosebud’s true meaning incredibly secretive over the course of the film, but that does not mean he totally avoids setting it up.
To be continued...
Are there other meaningful symbols in the film? Certainly. Jigsaw puzzles, for example, become incredibly representative of the enigma that is Kane and really of the film itself; each person tells another side of the story that is another piece of Kane’s life to be added into the puzzle that is him. We see different aspects of the man: his official achievements, his childhood, his early days, his disintegrating marriage, his eventual decline. However, we cannot understand Charles Foster Kane until the last piece is added, and then, with the inclusion of “Rosebud”, everything finally makes some sense. Other symbols include Kane’s collection of statues (objectified people, just like everyone in his world), his declaration of principles (which, as viewers can predict from the moment Jed comments that he will hold onto it in case a reminder is ever needed, is torn up by the end movie’s end, much like the actual principles themselves), Xanadu (the most and biggest things possible, yet so depressing), and the snow-globe (connected with Rosebud in its symbolism for the hidden past). But, as it is the driver for the narrative structure of the film, Rosebud really is the key to the picture, the ingenious device that not only sets up the movie but then allows it to fully make sense. Few phrases, objects, or moments in any movie ever made have had such a profound effect on their picture and on the history of cinema.
DeleteIn Citizen Kane, Rosebud is a symbol that has an obvious and direct connection to the concept of Kane's childhood and early upbringing in an underclass rural environment. Rosebud also can be said to represent a path in life which he wishes he could have taken, a lost opportunity, and the world of simplicity and anonymity that closed its doors as soon as Thatcher took Charlie Kane under his wing. At the end of the film, the secret of Rosebud is revealed when we see Charlie's childhood sled burning in the furnace with the word "Rosebud" printed on the front and a small graphic of a rose. Because the word never appears on any object or in relation to any object or concept throughout the rest of the film, it is clear that Kane's dying words have a very straight forward and unambiguous connection to the sled. What bothers me is that, given the caliber of this film (in terms of narrative precision, exquisite detail, inventive cinematography, etc.), Rosebud has such an unmistakable and relatively shallow meaning. Furthermore, Rosebud itself is an arbitrary word as neither his sled nor his childhood have any connection to the actual concept of a rose. A rose could theoretically carry implications such as natural beauty, delicateness, the significance of nature (Romanticism), the concept of love, the concepts of blood and sacrifice (due to its red color), etc. Orson Welles could have even utilized the clever but cliqued notion that "every rose has it's thorn" to demonstrate that while Kane's innocent and carefree childhood had its share of joy and happiness, that lifestyle, the path of life in lower class poverty, is filled with hardship and financial difficulty and thus has it's "thorn." The thorn could also be used to represent the implication that Kane's father had been beating him as a child. Unfortunately, the film does not clearly hint at any of these added meanings in the short scene when we see Charlie playing in the snow and this parents discussing his departure with Mr. Thatcher. Had we at least seen a small rose sitting on a coffee table in the background of the set where Kane's parents are talking with Thatcher, or possibly if Kane's mother had been wearing a dress with roses printed on it, then the viewer would have reason to look deeper into the meaning of Rosebud. Had his mother been wearing a dress with roses, the rose could have represented the beauty of motherly love while the thorn could represent the fact that if Charlie were to continue living with her, he would sacrifice his future as an upper class citizen. Welles could have even associated the notion of a rose with the life of wealth and prosperity that he ultimately does lead. Maybe the sled Thatcher hands to Charlie at Christmas should have had a rosebud on it to represent the apparent sweetness of a prosperous life with its hidden thorns of sadness, loneliness, and meaninglessness.
ReplyDeleteContinued...
Another option Welles could have use to make Kane's dying words have a less arbitrary connection to his childhood would be to have used a different symbol like a maple tree. Welles could have included a segment where Charlie's dad was chopping down a maple tree to build the sled for him or possibly they could have made the plaything a tree house built out of maple wood. The tree house would have represented the childhood innocence and the safe sheltering of his childhood. When Charlie's parents are negotiating with Thatcher, there could have been a container of real maple syrup on the dining room table to represent the sweetness of that environment. Later on, Welles could have included as scene where Kane is eating pancakes for breakfast in his fancy mansion home but, as a fleeting comment, Kane makes some objection about the syrup tasting fake and artificial. This would point to the artificial sweetness of a life of wealth and indulgence. At the beginning of the film, Kane might have merely said "Maple" as opposed to "Rosebud" and at the end of the film, the shots of the mansion filled with so many things could have had a lap dissolve into a final shot of Charlie's dilapidated tree house. For good measure, Welles could have done a deep focus shot with the tree house in the foreground and Kane's father in the background cutting down wood, or, alternatively, the film could have ended with a construction crew chopping down the tree with the tree house on top to better represent the concept of that symbol "burning up" and being lost forever to the characters and reporters in the film. In any case, as the movie stands, Rosebud is more of a MacGuffin than a deeply significant reflection on Kane's childhood.
DeleteRosebud was the word inscribed on his sled from his childhood. When his parents sent him away, his sled did not come with him, instead he received a new sled as a present. I believe that Rosebud does hold some significance in the film. I don’t feel that it helps us solve the mystery of Kane though; the objective of the film was to sum up Kane’s life in one word, that word being Rosebud. Rosebud was his last word; therefore reporters felt like it must have been something special. In fact, Rosebud did hold importance to Kane; it was a symbol of the childhood he remembered. His childhood, to him, was the happiest and most carefree time of his entire life. To him, his childhood was amazing, although Kane could have held an idealized sense of his childhood. We talked in class about how the mother hints to the fact that Kane’s father might beat him and that is one of the reasons she sent him far away. Regardless, Kane viewed his childhood as a better time in his life than his adulthood. Rosebud was not just the name on the sled he possessed as a child; it represented his carefree childhood and the times he missed most. It represented all he ever wanted in life and shows how money can’t buy someone’s happiness. It is important that no one ever finds out the meaning of Rosebud as well because no one ever knew that part of his life. No one “unlocked the mystery” as Dr. Ialacci said. The film proved that a person’s life cannot be described in just one word, as all of Kane’s acquaintances had shown in their stories. Yet when he dies, his last thoughts were not about all of his possessions, or his money, or any woman he lost along the way. He thought about Rosebud, or the one time in his life he was truly happy. Although the film was about finding the meaning of Rosebud and trying to capture Kane’s life through his final word, Rosebud holds some significance throughout the film. The actual word, Rosebud, is not revealed until the end, but once it is shown the whole underlying theme of Kane’s only happy memory comes to life.
ReplyDeleteWhile Rosebud’s true meaning is never discovered in the movie to anyone except the audience, it acquires such a mysterious presence that the entirety of the movie is revolved around finding its interpretation. The very last scene of the movie clues the audience into the true meaning of the “rosebud” and it happens to be the sled Kane had when he was a little boy living in his mothers boarding house, happily with his parents. The significance of the sled “rosebud” is what ultimately shapes Kane’s personality and has him grow up to become the person he was in the end. For Kane, the sled represented his past life he has with his parents and specifically his mother. That life represented true love and even with his lack of wealth it is assumed he was happier living that way than he was a year later. The replication of the sled after Kane is taken away from his parents symbolizes the start of his materialistic life. I think that it shows us how Kane lost what truly meant most to him, his family, and the replication is trying to be a make up toy for him. Ultimately, we know this does not work and Kane’s childhood was filled with people much older than him, and most likely very little fun. The significance of the name “rosebud” could have many meanings, but I believe it is connected to love and his family. We are ultimately shown the last image of Kane dying with the snow globe in his hand speaking his last word of “rosebud”. At first, I thought nothing of the snow globe but soon realized that the inside appeared to be similar to his mother’s old boarding house. Whether or not this was intended, it reiterates the point that Kane had only ever wanted affection and love, and didn’t know how to retrieve it.
ReplyDeleteI think Rosebud is a very significant and symbolic. In my opinion it represents the life Charles Kane could never have. I think by showing the Rosebud sled burning at the end of the film shows how Kane would never get the life he was born into back. There was commentary throughout the film regarding to the happiness and goals of Kane, which seemed to express that he wished he didn’t have all of the money and the starting position he had. Even from the very beginning Kane didn’t want to leave his family, and he seemed to have a special bond with his mother. Additionally another symbol that I think played along with Rosebud was the snow globe. The scene we get of Kane’s childhood was out in the middle of nowhere and it was snowing. I think the snow globe also represents the life he was born into, but would be taken from. Another thought I had about the snow globe was that it was the only thing from his wife’s room that he did not smash to pieces that maybe it was the last thing he had that represented the true love of his life. I think many of the symbols in the film represent how Kane was not happy with the life he had; for example his purchasing of basically anything you can own such as statues, etc. it seemed that Kane was attempting to make up for the life he could not have.
ReplyDeleteAs a child, Citizen Kane lived alone in a very isolated area, and was forced to become mature faster than the average person. Based on the beginning of the movie, it looked as if he lived somewhere that wasn’t the best place to be as a child, and not a very memorable experience. Because of this, and also because he was taken at such a young age, he never really got to remember what it was like to be a child or even a teenager. He was deprived of learning about love as he was never really exposed to it until he was wealthy. He was taught that money means everything, and it obviously doesn’t. The minute he leaves his home with Thatcher, he loses his potential childhood which ends up becoming his downfall. This is all represented by the sled, in the scene where he leaves, when he is taken away and the sled is left behind in the background, but the audience never sees the word rosebud on it until it’s burnt at the end. I think that part of the greatness of this movie comes from the fact that no one really knows the significance of Rosebud, even though we know that it was on the bottom of his sled. While it is evident that Rosebud represents the loss of his childhood, and that Citizen Kane could never really be happy, it is unclear exactly why he says it at the end of the movie.
ReplyDeleteCitizen Kane grows up in controversial beginnings. Not every child would want to be in his shoes unless they could look into the future and see what comes from his life. Kane starts his life like a normal boy but soon his life is flipped up side down. Growing up, Kane had the one thing a boy needed growing up in the wintery tundras, a sled. His sled was named "rosebud" the key link and meaningful word in the movie. He played with the sled all the time but once he was purchased by Thatcher things seemed to change drastically. He was sent into a life of isolation and work with no fun which leds to multitudes of success but ironically pave the road to his downfall. As he grew up without rosebud, he was taught that money and wealth/fame are the most important things in life, not happiness or love. Kane was put in a world where nothing else matters but the status you withhold. "Rosebud" is such a powerful word in the movie because Kane's only connection to his childhood and the innocent times of childhood and love were shared with his sled, not with money and wealth. The reason rosebud plays such a powerful role in the film is accredited to its identity within the movie, or the lack of identity it has. While watching you really don't know what rosebud is and question the name as his companions are getting interviewed. Rosebud is seen as a piece of a jig saw puzzle but it's not just any piece, it's the piece that can change the whole puzzle and make it completely different. Kane was shown a life of loneliness with his only companion being money, and all he wanted were the years in his life where none of that mattered, where the only thing that mattered was the union being free.
ReplyDelete