Citizen Kane Literary Analysis

Citizen Kane tells the story of Charles Foster Kane, a millionaire newspaper tycoon, who had recently passed away. The story unfolds in a sequence of overlapping narratives told by different narrators, all with different views of Kane. Their opinions of Kane give the audience different perspectives of the man thought to be one of the most powerful figures in America. The events recalled are told by the narrators to reporters trying to decipher Kane’s famous last words “rosebud”, but because of their advance older age they seem to be contradictory and unreliable. Their accounts are out sequence and often coincide with themselves. Kane brings together non-linear and composite storytelling from multiple points of view unlike traditional Hollywood

Something that one gets from being loved and taken care of by one’s parents, a very important childhood event. It seemed he would show what he called love by showering those he care for with gifts and money. As an adult he almost had unfulfilled needs of having someone love him, care for him and make him feel important, even though he experienced great success over his adult life. It seemed as he wanted to redo everything over, specially his youth, trying to experience it again. Kane had amassed a great wealth and had a need for nothing, this led to him convincing himself that materialistic possessions made him happy, but what we see is that all he wanted was a normal life. Had Kane had a normal childhood with love and filled with experiences most children have, he would have not been so cold and cruel. Having amassed such great wealth had lost its vanity on him, we find him in a rut with nothing to achieve and most nothing that brings him pleasure in life anymore. The only possession in his life that brought him joy was Rosebud, the sled he spent hours going downhill