A Natural Citizen Kane

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A Natural Citizen Cane An exploration of a man’s true identity is put before us in the film, Citizen Kane; we are challenged to question ourselves, our peers, our country and our morality through the unraveling of the character, Charles Foster Kane. Due to an unnatural shift in fate, a young boy meant to be a certain type of man instead becomes a parody to his morale and character. Without this unnatural shift, Charles Foster Kane could have turned out to be a significantly different character and influence within his society. Nature powerfully affects the outcome of the film, as an inevitable force or fate, as an exterior shot (physically being outdoors), and as a physicality (weather and our ecosystem), and ultimately leads us to the answer to the question everyone wants to know: Who really is Citizen Kane? In our search for the man behind the money, we travel far back in time to Kane’s childhood. In a discovery of an arrangement between his mother and a banker, we understand the immediate value that monetary gain has upon these characters. This increase in finances prompts Kane’s mother to send him away from his home to live in a place of entitlement. Interestingly, the sudden appearance of money in the Foster family is due to the natural land around them; without taking from the natural landscape in mining, they wouldn’t have had money as a foundation to create the cyclical aspect we see to Kane’s life. The theme of Kane’s gain of entitlement is woven through his abuse of Nature in the film in multiple fashions; Kane’s companies consist of grocery stores, paper mills, apartment buildings, factories, forests, ocean liners, Colorado Mine Co. (the third wealthiest gold mine in the country), and, of course, the newspapers. Kane’s lack of concern for the environment is evidenced through these businesses; while we understand the topic of the environment was not as
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