Since the beginning of the American Dream, Americans have idealized the journey towards happiness. One thing people do not realize, however, is that the journey requires hard work and honesty. Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), the main character of Citizen Kane (1941), directed by Orson Welles, was unable to learn this through the humble happiness of childhood in relative poverty. As he grows up in a very privileged atmosphere, he views everyone as forces that are easily controllable, and the journey towards happiness as easy. This view irretrievably cost him his opportunity for lifelong contentment. Both the storyline and the film techniques used by Welles show the futility of striving for complete control. Welles also uses this movie as an allegory to the careless luxury of the 1920s and consequential fall into the Great Depression in the 1930s.
If one observes Charles Foster Kane’s life, they will find an underlying common cause of his actions: to be in control. The movie starts out in Kane’s childhood home, before his life changed forever. His family is visited by a rich bank owner named Jerry Thompson (William Alland) who, for unknown reasons, wants Kane to grow up as his own. Kane ages, learning the trade of investing and owning businesses. He eventually becomes the owner of the New York Inquirer, an old newspaper company. He keeps the newspaper company so he could be on the people’s side and influence their beliefs. Later in the movie, he creates slanted headlines to bring more views to the paper, as well as hiring his competition’s crew. He does not care to bring honesty to the people, as he insists when he first comes into owning the newspaper. He hires from his competitors, makes up dramatic headlines, and betrays his...
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...et, nothing they could turn to, because they allowed themselves to become so blinded by their own pitfalls. It is the same with Charles Kane. He sets himself up as this powerful and all-controlling man, but he is just deceiving himself. That facade comes down with Susan’s abandonment, and it comes down hard. He does not realize that his actions are pushing everyone away until it is too late.
The movie Citizen Kane shows the futility of pushing oneself onto others. If one tries to take full control of other’s lives, their own will go out of control. It is doubly futile if that person also convinces himself that his way is the only way. This false confidence only blinds oneself to the possibly deadly consequences, as seen in the catastrophic transition from the 1920s to the 1930s. Kane realized his mistake in the end, but it was too late. Do not let it become too late.
Throughout the history of literature, a great deal of authors has tried to reveal a clear understanding of the American Dream. Whether it is possible to achieve lies all in the character the author portrays. The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye stand as prime examples of this. F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger, the authors of these titles, respectively, fashion flawed characters, Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield, with one vital desire: the longing to gain what they can’t have; acceptance and the feeling of belonging. Each retaining characteristics that shows their differences and similarities in opinion of the world around them.
The film Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, is a great example of how a man can be corrupted by wealth. Through the characters in the film we can observe how Charles Foster Kane, an idealistic man with principles, can be changed and misguided by wealth and what accompanies wealth. The film takes places during the late 19th century and early 20th century, a time in American history when the world is changing and wealth is a great power to change it with. Through the story telling of Kane’s life we are able to see how wealth changes, not only Kane’s ideals, but his actions and how he perceives the world.
Orson Welles’ career took place in the mid-thirties to late eighties in the twentieth century. He began his career at age fifteen, starting in Ireland, making his acting debut in the Gate Theater in Dublin. By eighteen, Welles started to appear in off-Broadway productions. It was then that he also launched his radio career. By age twenty, he had presented alternate interpretations of certain well-known plays and movies. At age twenty-two he was the most notable Broadway star from Mercury Theater and, because of this, BBC radio gave him an hour each week to broadcast whatever he pleased. That’s when, at age twenty-five, he broadcast War of the Worlds, which caused panic due to the “Martian invasions”. By the time he came into Hollywood, Welles could write, direct, cast, star, and edit movies without disturbance from the studios. It was during this time he created Citizen Kane- the only movie he completely finished. He retired from Hollywood at age thirty-three in 1948, but still continued to create his own films.
In your view, how does Welles’ portrayal of the complex nature of happiness contribute to the enduring value of Citizen Kane?
Carter Kane has been traveling around the world since he was eight years old. He was homeschooled by his father, Julius Kane, who was Egyptologist. Julius Kane was hiding a huge secret, he was an Egyptian magician. On Christmas Eve, Carter and Julius head to London to visit Carter's sister, Sadie, who lives as a British student. Both siblings (who look nothing alike) were separated at a very young age, Sadie to live with her grandparents, and Carter with his father. Julius picked up Sadie, and discovered that one out of the two days of the year they get the spend together was going to be occupied by a trip to British Museum. Before heading there, both children spy on their dad talking to a strange man named Amos. They had no idea what the adults were talking about, but when the reckless Sadie popped out to say hi to her dad, Amos disappears. While at the museum, Sadie and Carter noticed that their dad was extremely interested in one specific artifact, the Rosetta Stone. Julius Kane ended up blowing the artifact up by trying to summon Osiris. He also accidentally released the other ch...
In ' 'Death of a Salesman ' ' by Arthur Miller and ' 'The Great Gatsby ' ' by F. Scott Fitzgerald we are presented with the tragedy of ruined idealism. Willy Loman 's and Jay Gatsby 's dreams are crushed because of their tremendous desire to be meaningful and significant. However, their social status, lineage, and ability to accept reality are incompatible with their dreams. Miller provides the facts that capitalism will not give a chance to ordinary people to get the American dream, and contrary Fitzgerald designates that achievement of the American dream will not bring happiness.
The absolutely stunning film, Citizen Kane (1941), is one of the world’s most famous and highly renowned films. The film contains many remarkable scenes and cinematic techniques as well as innovations. Within this well-known film, Orson Welles (director) portrays many stylistic features and fundamentals of cinematography. The scene of Charles Foster Kane and his wife, Susan, at Xanadu shows the dominance that Kane bears over people in general as well as Susan specifically. Throughout the film, Orson Welles continues to convey the message of Susan’s inferiority to Mr. Kane. Also, Welles furthers the image of how demanding Kane is of Susan and many others. Mr. Welles conveys the message that Kane has suffered a hard life, and will continue to until death. Welles conveys many stylistic features as well as fundamentals of cinematography through use of light and darkness, staging and proxemics, personal theme development and materialism within the film, Citizen Kane.
The 1941 film Citizen Kane revolves around a group of reporters trying to decipher newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane’s dying last word “Rosebud.” The film starts out with a long panning shot of a huge mansion and then a quick shot of Kane in his Xanadu mansion on his deathbed with him saying the word “Rosebud” before dropping a snow globe to the ground and then dying. Then the film goes back in forth between the upbringing of Kane’s life and the news reporters talking with everyone close to Kane to try and figure out what “Rosebud” meant to him. With that being said, the word legacy comes to mind as one of the major themes in this film with the story focusing on the rise and fall of Charles Foster Kane.
Many devices such as theme, subject and meaning reflect different aspects of a film. The time and place that the movie is made are usually affected but this.
Each character in the novel has their own interpretation of the ‘American Dream – the pursuit of happiness’ as they all lack happiness due to the careless nature of American society during the Jazz Age. The American Dreams seems almost non-existent to those whom haven’t already achieved it.
In one scene of the film, Susan Alexander tells Kane, “I don’t know many people” and his response, “I know too many people. I guess we’re both lonely” undoubtedly depicts his detachment to others. The film repeatedly portrays Kane as an outsider in various situations of his home, work, and social life. Though Kane is abandoned by numerous people throughout the film, his mother and wife Susan’s abandonment affects him gravely. He becomes devastated by the loss of Susan and recollections of his simple and calm childhood make him seek further solitude. Towards the end of the film, his wealth is insignificant and he is attached only to the snow globe he found in Susan’s bedroom upon her leaving, which symbolizes his lost youthful innocence, and Rosebud, the name written on his childhood sled. Kane loses his business, friends, love, and much more due to his selfishness and greed. Though Kane becomes the wealthiest man in the world and most influential man in New York City, he dies a lonely and depressed man, with no one to hear his last words, “Rosebud”, except his butler, who shrugs it off as nonsense. The last scene, the burning of Kane’s Rosebud sled, symbolizes a complete loss in happiness which resulted in Kane’s isolated
It features two men, from troubled pasts, who murder an entire family for no apparent reason. The duo, comprised of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, are ruthlessly investigated for what could have been the perfect crime, if had not had been for a set of footprints left at the scene where the murder had occurred. Capote allows us to dive deep into the personal lives of the two killers. Perry, though distorted in figure and “like a wife that must be got rid of”, actually turned out to be like a gentle wave, just going whichever way the wind would take him. He, too, like Truman, struggles with the idea of who he is and what he aspires to be. When he was younger, he had some severe daddy issues along with even worse problems with his mother. As we learn, throughout his ruthless act, Perry continuously showed a cute, kind of gentle side that stems from his conflicting thoughts of wanting to do right but doing it the wrong way. After murdering the entire family, he goes as far and to tuck the two women in “like sweet dreams and good nights”, not something a person capable of this kind of crime tends to do. From this, we become aware of how severely a person's past can affect their identity in the
In the film Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane was the head of the Inquirer newspaper empire. As Mr. Kane grew more powerful in his life, he began to use his newspapers as a written propaganda machine. This went against his initial principles of leading a newspaper that reports the news both truthfully and honestly. One example of Kane using the newspaper to sway the ideas and opinions of the readers of the Inquirer is in relation to Susie Alexander and her opera. Susie’s opera received poor reviews by the different newspapers, including the Inquirer, but Kane demanded that she continue to sing. He published many newspapers that gave the impression that the opera was one of the best, even though he himself knew it was not true. His titles and articles made people...
Citizen Kane is an American film written, produce, directed and starring Orson Welles. The movie debuted in 1941, eventually becoming one of RKO’s most prevalent films of all times. The main character Charlie Kane is played by Orson Welles and is often argued to be a portrayal of the media mogul William Randolph Hearst’s life. There are several reasons why the film grew in popularity, whether being the decent acting by fresh faces of Hollywood, or the creative, unique and innovative cinematic techniques developed by Orson Welles. Cinematic techniques are used throughout the films to demonstrate, emphasize and provoke the true emotions of the characters or settings using different forms camera work.
In America there is countless of different definitions of what the American Dream is, but according Xavier University “many Americans most commonly define the American Dream in terms of opportunity, freedom, and family” (Good). A great definition of what the American Dream is” no matter what your race you are, what country you come from, and what financial background you have you can be anything you want to be” said Sidd Singhal an investment banker (National: Defining the American Dream). While on their journey many Americans realize that the American Dream bring a different paths of happiness which includes alcohol, sex, and drugs. In both movies “Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Great Gatsby” are great representation of what the American Dream is and the paths of happiness that comes along with it. Both movies were released in the same year, have the same theme and one the main characters Jordan Belfort and Jay Gatsby are both played by Leonardo DiCaprio My focus in this essay is to compare both Wolf of Wall Street and The Great Gatsby to show the connection between the American Dream and the paths to happiness.