Citizen Kane makes the American dream seem like something
that does not look very desirable. . The movie also teaches something about how
you can’t buy happiness. When Charles was a child, we never saw him playing
with any friends or being around kids, he was always playing by himself.
Thatcher takes him away from his rather poor family and small house into great
luxury and wealth. He is given the best schooling and upbringing that money can
buy, and through vision and hard work, parlays that into a massive media
empire. As an adult he lives in a palace, surrounded by nothing but expensive
materials. His second wife’s name is Susan; she is low class but still a very
good-looking woman. Charles forces her into singing opera, even though she is
not very talented. He even buys her an opera house. She eventually leaves him.
I don’t think they ever really loved each other. Susan was miserable at Xanadu.
Charles was never satisfied with her and always forced her into and gave her
things only he wanted, and Susan never got anything she wanted. Charles tried
to buy love with his money, but instead it only made other people just as
miserable as himself. He makes other people just as miserable as he is because
he feels lonely. His wealth only made him lonely and nothing but miserable.
I agree with what you say here. It seems that Kane is truly happy when he is a child and living at his own home with his mother and father. However, I do not think his wealth made him lonely and miserable by itself, although it was a great contributing factor. When he first buys the Enquirer and is working there he seems to be quite happy with his work there. He enjoys spreading the news. Also Kane seems to be happy again when he falls in love with and marries Emily. Once Kane decides to stick with Susan it seems that he is plunged into a downward spiral that ultimately leeds to his miserableness.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said, money usually doesn't equate to happiness. The thing that closes him of to a happy life is primarily his perception of reality and his unwillingness to submit himself emotionally to his wife and sometimes, to himself. While Mr. Kane initially shows a generally positive moral compass while working in his newspaper company when he was younger, he eventually shuts himself off to the world and becomes stingy, cold, and fed up with the world and the media. This only accelerates his downward spiral, and renders him a cold unhappy person.
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