An individual cannot change what he has become: "Citizen Kane"

Essay by husskHigh School, 12th gradeA-, June 2006

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In the film, "Citizen Kane", this idea is portrayed through the protagonist, Charles Foster Kane. He cannot change what he has become. He becomes an egotistic, arrogant and unsociable individual and cannot change this. As a result, he remains lonely and dies all alone.

In his infancy, Kane enjoys the company and security of his parents and his home. He lives a happy and content life. Unfortunately, his mother inherits a potentially enormous fortune and gives this to Kane. He is forced to leave home and his happy life and is thrown into the cruel world. The consequence of this act of unintentional cruelty is that Kane becomes an individual who cannot change. The traits he acquires along with the wealth - the arrogance, the egotism, are to be with him forever.

Kane becomes a man who is inevitably on his way to a spiritual doom. He emerges as a self-centered man, "the personal note is all there is to it", who is driven solely by his ego, "he didn't believe in anything but Charlie Kane". He tries to buy friends, "That's all you've ever done with everybody. Tried to bribe them." His lack of love as a child leads to a yearning for love complemented with an ironic inability to love. He lives an arrogant life, tries to buy happiness and thinks that he has all that life has to offer.

He develops into a power-hungry individual whose arrogance is as obvious as the colour of his skin. We are given an inkling to the moral stance he is prepared to take in pursuit of success when he sends a message to Cuba saying: "You provide the prose poems, I'll provide the war." He has the self-avowed desire to help the common man. Yet this is constantly...