How Citizen Kane moves and challenges you.

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Citizen Kane moves and challenges us through its aptitude to make the audience continually think, feel and see certain things determined by the film, about their own lives and of the text as a whole. This is completed through the film’s admirable themes, characters, structure, story line, context and textual integrity. The themes presented in Citizen Kane are universal and affect the life of every person, not only in the film, but also in the audience. They raise questions about what makes us who we are, the true value of superficial belongings and why people strive after power, money and fame. It is through these questions that the film moves and challenges us. The themes of love, memory, power and money in Citizen Kane are prevalent in the entire film, especially through the character of Charles Foster Kane. Kane strives for power throughout his whole life, from running for Governor, to his control over the paper and the news it puts out, to his control over the lives of the people around him. This is shown in his argument with Emily “people will think what I tell them to think”. As stated by critic James Berardinelli, Citizen Kane was “a powerful dramatic tale about the uses and abuses of wealth and power.” Although Kane seems to have so much power, he never seems to be truly happy or satisfied. This leads the audience to think about if power and money only give people superficial happiness, will these things ever truly fulfil them. Another way that Citizen Kane moves and challenges us is through its characters. The characters in the text are all flawed, and it is their faults and failings that lend them credibility and make them fascinating to viewers. The audience automatically feels empathy for the characters in their tough moments, as we can relate their trials and tribulations to those in our own lives. This empathy is shown, above all, in the final

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