Analysis of a scene from' 'Citizen Kane'

This is an analysis of the opening scenes of the film 'Citizen Kane'.

In this clip we see a small boarding home surrounded by snow and Kane out playing on his sled. Meanwhile, inside of the boarding home, Mrs. Kane and Mr. Kane, her husband, are arguing because Mrs. Kane has inherited a gold mine on the property and she is signing papers to turn their son over to Mr. Thatcher who's bank holds the trust that Charles will inherit on his 25th birthday. Mrs. Thatcher wants the bank to be their son’s guardian and believes that their son will be better educated in the bank’s care. As Mrs. Kane is at the table with Thatcher signing the paperwork, Mr. Thatcher’s angrily objects in the background as Kane is framed in a window outside playing happily on his sled; this image says that Kane, at this point, is the picture of happiness. Thatcher mentions the 50,000.00 dollar a year allowance Mr. and Mr. Kane will from the fund and Mr. Kane calms down immediately. After signing their son over to Mr. Thatcher and the Bank, Mrs. Kane calls her son in. Mr. Thatcher takes the boy and the abandoned sled is covered in snow.

This is where the sadness starts. Mrs. Kane decides to have her son raised in a materialistic environment that is insensitive to his emotional needs. Kane’s viewpoint of the world in relation to himself is “If I give you something, you must love me,” but throughout his public and private life he is incapable of giving love because he was raised by a banker who only provided for his material needs and this upbringing taught and his mother’s reason for giving him up in the 1st place conditioned him to think that he could be loved by returning something other than love. 

Fantastic scene. Right away, the film presents us with the paradox of Charles as a small boy who is happy and yet very poor. His parents, particularly his father, are not college educated but the boy seems happy and content. His happiness is interrupted and taken away from him by Thatcher, a banker, who, his mother believes, will provide the proper education for her son. Right away, there is a trade-off of his childhood and happiness for wealth that  he searches for throughout the film. This scene also sheds light on his motivations later as an adult as to why his newspaper stands up for people who are poor. His father in this scene has no say so over his son being turned over to the bank and Kane’s newspaper is the voice for those who remind him of his father.