Throughout the whole movie, the viewers got a feeling that Kane never had emotions and nothing could affect him, well this is until we learn of Rosebud. A childhood is something Kane was deprived of. When he was about 8 years old his parents sent him away to be educated and becoming something big in life, but what they did is take something away from him that no parent should take away; a childhood. Love is something that was not apparent in the opening scenes of the movie, his mother seemed so cold and stern, believing that is was in his best interests to leave home and become successful.
Did this success make him a happy man, well later we learn the answer and that is no. Kane had everything a man could want in life, a wife who was not all ways loving but still there for him, an extravagant social life and last but not least billions of dollars. Kane had all this but he still never seemed to be pleased. He was demanded more and the best out of what he had. Kane had nearly fooled himself that these materialistic posesions made him happy, but what we really find out is; all he wanted was a normal life.
His house was cluttered with senseless ornaments that probably mean the least to him. Kane’s amazing lifestyles with everything so big and exuberant was in a way his cure to a lonely soul. He never could determine who were his friends and who weren’t, once he dies we find out: many weren’t. If Kane had been brought up with a childhood, with the love and fun most children experience, maybe he wouldn’t have been so cold and brutal.
The attraction of money wore out for him after a few years but it had already done its damage, and then we find him stuck, with nothing to do and most of all nothing that pleases him in life anymore. The key to understanding Kane was not in what he found pleasurable nor what interested him, it was his weakness. Kane always seemed tough, like he never gave a second thought about what just happened, he just did what he had to do and he did it swiftly but like all people something did affect him. Superman had Kryptonite and for Kane it was memories.
Many memories that he should’ve had, that he missed out on. Memories of going to school, having a young teenage crush, spending cold nights in front of the fire with his parents talking about his day at school, none of these were there. Kane was left with memories of making money, bringing down businesses and 2 marriages which both got separated by money. Kane learns what he missed out on with the sight of something the reminded him of his young and innocent times. When Kane could have fun going on a sled down a hill, or throwing snowball at his mum’s orphanage.
Kane did not care much for money and could live without it. The sight of an old ranch out in the snow flooded back memories of his most valued possessions, something that couldn’t be bought to easily. What couldn’t be bought easily was fun, and the possession that brought him this fun was “Rosebud”, his trusty sled in which he spent endless hours going down a hill. When Kane died what he had to show for it wasn’t a great deal, no son to carry on the family name just a bunch of statistic and a few people who will now pretend to be his friends to get a slice of the inheritance.