Rosebud

            "I don't think any word can explain a man's life". Thompson says, "Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't get, or something he lost". The first image of "No Trespassing", which also mirrors the last shot of the film, is making a statement about Kane's life - a powerful man who got everything he wanted in life yet lost it. "Rosebud" explains nothing in the end, that is, nothing the viewer had expected it to. If Thompson had known of the sled, this may have given the viewer closure. Thompson may have concluded that "Rosebud" was the sled that represented Kane's childhood and innocence. The issue of the separation with his mother, along with detailed forecasting throughout the film, tells us that "Rosebud" was Kane's symbol of the security of his childhood. Through the many faces of Kane - the innocent little boy, the younger, happier Kane, the Kane who made shadowy figures with his fingers while with Susan Alexander, the Kane who chose his mistress over his marriage and son (and political career), and the Kane who kept millions amused, we see that "Rosebud" was only a tool to tell the story, which in the end explains nothing at all.
             The snow globe Kane holds in his hand during his death, and after his second wife, Susan Alexander leaves him, also forecasts that "Rosebud" does not provide an answer to who Kane really was, but refers more to a question that may have haunted Kane throughout his life. Kane could have thought there was never any real love with his mother, as he toasts with his best friend, Jed Leland, "A toast, Jebediah, to love on my terms. Those are the only terms anybody ever knows, his own". This statement held true throughout his relationships with his mother and any other bond in his life. Kane's strange obsession with the snow globe seems to wit his feelings for his mother.
             "All he really wanted out of life was love," Leland says. "That's Charlie's story - how he lost it".