https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svu5YR-4xYo

My favourite scene in Citizen Kane (1941, directed by Orson Welles) is when Charles Foster Kane dies at the beginning. I like this scene because it provides some exposition without giving away the plot of the entire film. Furthermore , the scene creatively uses panted backgrounds and actual sets to create an atmosphere that is somewhat realistic and this adds to the verisimilitude and it makes the audience think that Citizen Kane could possibly happen in the real world and that helps the audience to feel an immediate connection to Kane and his struggle.

The beginning of the film creates a mystery that causes the rest of the plot to come to fruition  and it helps to frame the rest of the film and to put it into a reasonable  context because the the newsreel reporters  are trying to find out the meaning of Kane’s last words which was “Rosebud” and it helps to drive the narrative forward without spoiling the plot and it immediately makes Kane seem like an enigmatic figure to the audience and they spend the entire film trying to figure out who he was in his life and the opening allows us to go in this journey with the newsreel reporters in order to figure out who Kane was.

Furthermore , the word “rosebud” has connotations of innocence and the fact that “rosebud” was Kane’s last word suggests that when he was dying , he was longing for the childhood innocence that had been ripped from him at a young age  and once we learn the context of Kane’s last word , it immediately makes the audience feel pity for him as the audience values childhood immensely and it would sadden them to see the childhood being ripped away from Kane. In addition , roses are associated with love and “rosebud ” may also be a reference to how all Kane really wanted was love and this desire for love is what drove all of his actions in the film.

The snow globe could symbolise Kane’s life – when it breaks it symbolises that Kane’s life is over and that he is no longer present. Additionally , the snow globe could be another symbol of Kane’s lost child hood , in this case , the symbolism of the glass shattering is more blatant than the word “rosebud” and this could indicate that Kane’s childhood was ripped away from him quickly and abruptly and that it left lasting scars on Kane’s mind and that it was the underlying motivation for all of his actions that we see.