A Comparison Of Genre Conventions Of Motherless Brooklyn And Citizen Kane

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Both Motherless Brooklyn and Citizen Kane rely on genre conventions to fulfill a reader’s expectation of the film or novel. The particular genre of this novel and film is mystery and detective fiction. Motherless Brooklyn is stated to have a traditionally structured narrative, while Citizen Kane has a non-linear narrative structure. In every camera movement of Citizen Kane, there is a significant hidden message with different meanings. This film also contains many different genres than just mystery and detective fiction.
Some common genre conventions used in mystery and detective fiction are having someone mentioned early in the novel be the criminal. Next, the detective in the story cannot be the one to commit the crime. Then they must not …show more content…

Instead of having an investigator or detective, you have an investigative reporter trying to figure out the meaning of Kane’s last dying words, “Rosebud”. This investigative reporter, also known as Thompson, goes to several different people who have had some kind of relationship with Kane, trying to find out if they know whom or what Rosebud actually is. This is a type of genre convention known as “retracing the steps”. Thompson did not know Kane personally. Also, unlike a normal detective film, you do not directly see Thompson’s face. The director focused mainly on the characters he was interviewing. Another thing that is different that most detective film’s is that there is not any violence or suspense. Thompson described Rosebud as, “a piece in a jigsaw puzzle, a missing piece.” In the end, Thompson gave up on finding the meaning behind the word, which is not like a usual mystery or detective fiction film or novel. He states, “I don’t think it explains anything. I don’t think any word explains a man’s life. He was a man who got everything and then again lost everything, Rosebud must have been something he lost or something he wanted but never got.” Even though the investigative reporter did not figure out the meaning behind Rosebud, it is still identified very ironically to the audience. Rosebud was a symbol of two things: the loss of Kane’s childhood and even the substitution of his loss with his

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