Citizen Kane Essay

Citizen Kane is a film which incorporates a whole range of themes and techniques, some more than others. A main theme presented throughout the film by Orson Welles is ‘What is lost, cannot be found’. Welles presents this theme thoroughly through his use of symbolism of Kane’s Sled, the brilliant use of camera angles, as well as the simple use of dialogue to represent Kane’s feelings. These three components used by Welles provides the audience with the key theme of a man having everything he wanted in life, yet all he really was his childhood.
In Citizen Kane, symbols, in particular, two sleds are presented as being of some significance to the story. In the beginning of the film, at the end of the film, and when Kane is seen at one of his most joyful moments, we are shown his most prized possession and his one childhood love; his original sled, Rosebud. Kane’s childhood sled is symbolic of Kane’s innocent and carefree childhood. Rosebud was the only thing that stood out in Kane’s youth. It was the final item he had hold of before being taken away from his home by Thatcher and it had stayed in his heart from that point onwards. In the childhood scene when Kane meets the character of Thatcher for the first time, Kane literally uses the sled as a shield in a way of resisting being taken under Thatcher’s care. In this situation, the sled is used as a symbol of fighting back the adulthood and wealth forced upon him. After being taken away from his innocence, Kane is given a second sled from Thatcher. We find that Kane’s bold rejection of the sleigh establishes that it is not as much the sleigh that Kane desired, it was his earlier childhood.
Throughout Citizen Kane, Welles uses a range of camera techniques to highlight the idea that Kane, despite all he has, has lost what is most important to him. For example, in this film we see Kane as a child being extremely powerless and without any authority. This is emphasised through the use of high and low camera angles. For