Citizen Kane Literary Techniques

Analysis of Citizen Kane At the age of twenty-five, Orson Welles produced, co-wrote, directed, and starred in the film, Citizen Kane. Although it was a commercial failure, it was nominated for nine Academy Awards (winning one for writing) and was declared the number one movie of all time by the American Film Institute in 1998. This controversial film is said to be based on the real-life American icon and newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst. America's supposed number one movie may better be understood by taking a closer and more intimate look at the film's conflicts, characters, and theme.
No film is complete without an intriguing conflict, and Citizen Kane is no exception. Wealthy newspaper tycoon, Charles Foster Kane faces an internal battle with himself in his constant search for the
Citizen Kane largely concerns itself with the difficulty in establishing who a person truly was during his/her life. The complexity of man is shown in that no matter how public one's life is, or no matter how many people knew that man, the root of his actions and the motivation of his life decisions may never be known. Citizen Kane embodies this theme by its constant search to decipher the essence of Kane, possibly contained in his dying word "Rosebud". The viewers never hear Kane's own opinion of his life; but instead, a newspaper reporter, Johnson, interviews several people Kane knew in hopes of uncovering who Kane was. It is revealed that Kane's wealth and fame did not define who he was. It was the ever present longing for his happy childhood memories that Kane was denied. And that one thing that he could never get back, was the one thing he truly wanted. From this desire, stemmed his actions and his inner turmoil. In the film, the news reporter never uncovers this truth. It was too complex and hidden to be