as suddenly famous.
Citizen Kane is a rich film in which one can find a wide variety of American values reflected or subverted in the actions of Kane and others in the film. The film also reflects a sense of the history of this country in the first four decades of this century, a period of change in the economic and political realms embodied in the changes in Charles Foster Kane himself. He begins as an idealist in the American mold, a man who wants his newspaper not merely to report the news but to provide a forum for the truth. However, this entails the accumulation of a good deal of power, and the growth of this power becomes a rationale for trying not merely to report the news but to make it. The power corrupts Kane until he is more feared than admired. His political career is cut short by a scandal, and in some ways this tragedy takes the last of his idealism out of him.
The primary American values sought by Kane in the beginning are truth, honesty, idealism, and individuality. These continue to be the primary goals he has for the country and the citizenry as he enters politics and offers to fight the corrupt political machine then running the city. The scandal into which he falls is a personal one, but it becomes a public one, showing how the voting public often confuses private morality with the public values of a political figure.
The accumulation of wealth and power are also American values, seen as negative values which lead to destruction, corruption, and the negation of the positive American values noted above. Individuality is often to be seen in the first set of goals, and individuality is a primary American value. The individual is the one who lives his or her life according to a private moral code, and when this is a positive it is not unlike the code that Kane puts on the front page of his newspaper in its first edition. The accumulation of wealth and power are also manifestations of individuality...