Citizen Kane

Is Citizen Kane an attack on the American Dream?
The American Dream is the idea that the more money you have, the happier and more
satisfied you will be. I agree that Citizen Kane is an attack on the American dream as Kane is
never shown to be really happy. Citizen Kane is a film that shows how even the richest people in
the world, like Kane who owns many newspapers and is very wealthy is constantly buying more
and more trying to fill the void in his life, the void that supposedly was his childhood that was
stripped from him as a young child. In doing this he was given a career filled with money fame
and power but at the end of his life he wanted to relive his life with his childhood, something
that money can never buy. This film really shows that not everything can be bought with
money. Some things, in Kane’s case time and memories, just cannot be bought with money.
This is the principle theme of Citizen Kane so yes I would say this film is an attack on the
American Dream.
Kane tried to compromise for his unhappiness with buying statues and buying gifts for
other people but he never succeeded. In his youth you see traces of happiness but as he ages
and looks back on his life he realizes that he has wasted it and he was and never will be
satisfied. This is shown when his last word was the name of a sled he had as a child. He was
happy then but then greed took over. When he died he had left an impressive legacy and loads
of money. People however never remember him as a happy person and eventually he fades to
nothing. So eventually the amount of money you acquire in your life will never matter.