Citizen Kane Summary And Analysis

The plot of Citizen Kane is about the life (and last words) of an extremely rich, famous, and formerly influential man named Charles Foster Kane. His life is shown through flashbacks and interviews, all of which come together to reveal more and more about Kane, as they take the audience through important points of his background and life, as seen through the eyes of those who knew him.
The film starts with Charles Foster Kane’s death and last word, which is ‘Rosebud’. After his death, a reporter named Jerry Thompson is told to find out more about Kane and discover the meaning behind the word Rosebud, by investigating and talking to those who knew Kane well. Thompson then proceeds to interview several people: Kane’s former best friend (Jedediah Leland), one of Kane’s ex-wives (Susan Alexander), Kane’s newspaper employee (Mr.
The interviews also discuss his marriage to a President’s niece, his rise in politics, power, and influence, his affair (and later marriage) with Susan Alexander, how that affair contributed to the failure of his political career and first marriage, the later failure of his second marriage, and his overall decline in power, status, and happiness and subsequent retreat from society. In the end, all the various pieces and interviews come together to provide the story of Kane’s rise and eventual decline over his lifetime, culminating in his dying alone without any close friends or family. However, through it all Thompson still cannot discover the meaning of Rosebud and finally gives up, concluding that it’s a mystery that will never be solved. Nevertheless, at the very end of the film, the audience learns that Rosebud was on the sled Kane was playing on as a child, right before he was sent away from home with