"Some called him a hero...others called him a heel."
Citizen Kane - Symbolism & Philosophy
Symbols & Motifs
Rosebud (The Sled)
"Rosebud" is the film's central and most famous symbol. It represents the lost innocence, simplicity, and maternal love of Kane's childhood. It is a tangible link to the last moment in his life when he was truly happy and secure, before being sent away from his mother to be raised in a world of wealth and ambition. For Kane, it symbolizes a paradise lost that all his money and power could never reclaim.
The word "Rosebud" is Kane's dying utterance. The reporter's quest to understand its meaning drives the entire plot. In the film's final moments, the audience sees workers burning Kane's old possessions, and the camera reveals the name "Rosebud" painted on the sled he was playing with on the day he was taken from his home. The sled is tossed into a furnace, its meaning lost forever to the world.
Snow Globe
The snow globe symbolizes Kane's attempt to recapture and preserve the purity of his past. It contains a simple, peaceful winter scene, echoing the moment he was separated from his family in the snows of Colorado. It represents his desire to freeze a moment of happiness and innocence before the complexities and corruptions of his adult life took hold. His dropping and shattering it at the moment of death signifies the final, irreversible loss of that innocence.
Kane is holding the snow globe when he dies, and it smashes on the floor. Susan Alexander mentions that he bought it on the day they first met, but it becomes clear it holds a deeper meaning. Later, after Susan leaves him, Kane violently destroys her room but stops when he finds the snow globe, clutching it as he whispers "Rosebud."
Xanadu
Xanadu, Kane's gargantuan and unfinished estate, symbolizes the ultimate emptiness of material wealth and the isolation it brings. It is a monument to his ego, filled with countless statues and artifacts, yet it is a cold, lifeless, and prison-like space. It represents his attempt to build a world he can control, yet he ends up a prisoner within its vast, lonely halls, reflecting the failure of his life's ambitions.
The film opens and closes at Xanadu. The opening shots establish it as a mysterious, gothic, and decaying place. We see Kane living out his final years there in solitude, wandering its cavernous rooms. The newsreel at the beginning details its immense scale and cost, calling it the "costliest monument a man has built to himself."
Jigsaw Puzzles
The jigsaw puzzles symbolize the fragmented and ultimately unknowable nature of Kane's life. Just as Susan mindlessly pieces together puzzles out of boredom and isolation, the reporter Thompson tries to piece together the puzzle of Kane's life from the memories of others. The film suggests that, like a jigsaw puzzle with a missing piece, a complete understanding of a person is impossible to achieve after they are gone.
Susan Alexander is shown sitting in the vast, empty halls of Xanadu, repeatedly assembling large jigsaw puzzles. This visual motif underscores her loneliness and the stagnant nature of her life with Kane. At the end of the film, Thompson uses the metaphor of a jigsaw puzzle to describe his failed investigation into the meaning of "Rosebud."
Philosophical Questions
Can a person's life be truly understood by others?
The entire structure of "Citizen Kane" is built around this question. The reporter Jerry Thompson embarks on a quest to understand Kane through a single word, "Rosebud." He gathers stories, facts, and memories from those who knew Kane best, but each provides only a partial, subjective, and often contradictory view. The film concludes that a human life is a labyrinth of complexities that cannot be neatly summarized or defined. Thompson himself admits defeat, concluding that "Rosebud" is just a "missing piece in a jigsaw puzzle" and that no single word can explain a man's life. The film suggests that the core of an individual's identity may be ultimately unknowable to anyone but themselves, and perhaps even to them.
What is the relationship between wealth, power, and happiness?
"Citizen Kane" serves as a powerful cautionary tale about the pursuit of the American Dream. Kane achieves unparalleled wealth and power, yet he is profoundly unhappy and dies alone. The film systematically dismantles the idea that money can buy happiness. Kane's fortune isolates him, corrupts his youthful ideals, and becomes a tool with which he tries, and fails, to control others and buy their love. His sprawling, treasure-filled mansion, Xanadu, is depicted as a lonely prison. The film argues that true fulfillment comes not from material possessions or public influence, but from genuine human connection and love, something Kane could never achieve.
How does the media shape truth and reality?
As a media mogul, Kane wields immense power to shape public perception. The film critiques the nature of journalism, particularly the sensationalism of "yellow journalism." Kane openly admits he controls what people think, boasting that if the headline is big enough, it makes the news big enough. His willingness to "provide the war" to sell papers shows a dangerous disregard for objective truth. The film explores how media can be a tool for personal ambition and manipulation, blurring the lines between news and propaganda. Ultimately, even Kane's own life story becomes a media narrative, presented in the opening newsreel, which is shown to be a superficial and incomplete version of the man.
Core Meaning
The core meaning of "Citizen Kane" is a profound exploration of the elusiveness of truth and the ultimate emptiness of the American dream when pursued without genuine human connection. Director Orson Welles suggests that a person's life is a complex puzzle, impossible to fully comprehend, especially through the fragmented and biased lens of memory. The reporter's quest to define Kane by his last word, "Rosebud," is ultimately futile; no single word can encapsulate the totality of a life filled with contradictions.
The film posits that immense wealth and power, the very cornerstones of Kane's ambition, lead not to happiness but to profound isolation and spiritual bankruptcy. Kane acquires everything he could possibly want—money, possessions, influence—yet dies alone, grasping for a memory of lost childhood and innocence. Welles delivers a cautionary tale about the corrupting nature of absolute power and the tragedy of a man who could win the adoration of the masses but never truly connect with or love another individual.