Few stories are as emblematic as Citizen KaneAnd there is no better way to explore the difference between meaning and goal – and how they shape our happiness– only by this masterpiece. The central character of the film, Charles Foster Kane, is a powerful and rich newspaper who dies alone in his great manor. His last word, “Rosebud”, becomes the key mystery of the film, leading a journalist to investigate his meaning. What the journalist discovers is a deep story that highlights our human condition – the one that has the power to transform our way of thinking about meaning, goal and happiness.
But what does Citizen Kane So convincing, it is not only the intrigue, but what he tells us about the stories that we are racing about ourselves.
The mystery of Rosebud
In the heart of Citizen Kane is a mystery that haunts the character of Kane long after his death. “Rosebud”, his last word, becomes a question that resonates throughout the story. At the start, we can consider him as a simple word – a random statement of an old man on his deathbed. But while the story takes place, the truth behind “Rosebud” takes place: it was the name of a sleigh that Kane had a child. This sleigh symbolizes a moment of his life when he was innocent, loved and linked to his family, before he was suddenly removed and pressed into a life of wealth and power.
The loss of Rosebud, the sled, represents something much deeper: the loss of happiness, security and the real connections that Kane had in the past. And it reveals the central theme of the film: the impact of the beginning trauma On the life of a person and the elusive nature of happiness.
Rosebud phenomenon: meaning vs but
The history of Kane’s life is an exploration of what I call the Rosebud phenomenon. This phenomenon explains how trauma or past loss becomes the nucleus of what pushes us to succeed – but paradoxically, also prevents us from achieving true happiness. It is a powerful objective through which we can understand the complex relationship between meaning and goal.
The difference between meaning and goal is crucial. The meaning is the story that we are racing on ourselves. This is how we interpret and give meaning to our past. The goal, on the other hand, concerns the present and the future. These are the actions we take to achieve a particular objective or mission.
For Kane, his past trauma – symbolized by the loss of his family and his beloved sled – has become the meaning of his life. He told himself a story about a great loss, a great trauma, which shaped his identify. Essentially, it has never been enough. The story that Kane conceived on himself was an inadequacy and an abandonment. And while he was going through his life, this story pushed him to prove his value by becoming a prosperous businessman and a media magnate.
But here is the catch: despite its monumental success, Kane was never satisfied. It was constantly trying more – more power, more control, more influence – and yet, this insatiable campaign has never fulfilled the void in it. He was always trapped in the same story that he had told himself to be “not enough”.
The problem of meaning
What Kane’s life reveals is that when the story we are racing on our past is rooted in trauma – whether loss, rejection or rejection or rejection or rejection or rejection or rejection fear insufficiency – it can distort our meaning of meaning. And when we carry this sense in the future, it often leads us to continue goals which are not a question of fulfillment but to prove to us.
This is where the Rosebud phenomenon strikes an agreement with many of us. Like Kane, many of us have unresolved trauma or past wounds – something we have not healed. And often, the story we are racing is that we are not sufficient. We are therefore trying to fill this void by achieving things, whether professional success, wealth or distinctions. We continue after a goal in order to feel whole, but the problem is that the hole created by this trauma is not tense by external achievements.
As Kane’s life demonstrates, it doesn’t matter how much we accumulate or accomplish, if we are motivated by a story that we are fundamentally inadequate, the pursuit of the objective will never bring us the satisfaction that we are looking for. It is an inexhaustible hole.
Heal the problem of meaning
So how can we solve the “meaning problem” that afflicts us? How can we free ourselves from the cycle to try to prove our value through success?
ESSESIGNENT readings of the good
In my opinion, the solution lies in the cropping of the story that we are racing on our past. We have to go back and recognize that the loss we suffered – the metaphorical rose button – was not our fault. The trauma was not something we caused, and it does not define us. We were good people in bad situations, and we no longer need to prove our value thanks to external achievements.
For Charles Foster Kane, healing would have meant accept that the loss of his childhood And his family was not his fault. He didn’t need to raise an empire to prove his value. Instead, he could have recommended his past and recognized that he was always sufficient, just as he was.
We all have our own version of Rosebud. It could be a moment of loss, a rejection or a deeply rooted fear of not being good enough. But the key to overcoming the Rosebud phenomenon is not to try to fill this void with more success or achievements. It is a question of going back and rewriting the story that we are racing – realizing that we have always been sufficient and that our value is not linked to what we realize, but to whom we are.
The Rosebud phenomenon in real life
The Rosebud phenomenon is not limited to fictitious characters like Kane. It’s all around us, in real life, and we also see it reflected in pop culture. Look at celebrities, billionaires and high power executives who seem to have everything, but are often unhappy, lonelyor looking for something deeper. What is their Rosebud? What trauma past is he trying to fill in their success? And more importantly, will this success be enough to make them really happy?
The answer, unfortunately, is probably not. If they have not cured their internal injuries, no amount of money or renown will fill the hole that remains. The key to happiness is not in what we accomplish, but in the way we reconcile with our past and rewrite the stories that we are racing ourselves.
Conclusion
The story of Citizen Kane It is not only a story of wealth and power; It is a story about the meaning we give to our lives and how it affects our pursuit of the objective. Kane’s inability to find happiness, despite his success, serves as a brutal reminder that real development comes from the healing of our past and to accept that we are sufficient – like us. It is only then that we can find peace, no matter how much we reach.
👑 #MR_HEKA 👑
