No one can ever truly know who another person really is.
I know, it’s a simplistic view of looking at the film, but follow: The movie is about the search for meaning of something – what is Rosebud? – that in the end is eventually both potent in meaning and meaningless at the same time. Some people viewing the film thinks that it is the “final piece” that helps us understand why Charles Foster Kane was the man he became, and others look at it as a joke – a final punchline that (spoiler!) Rosebud was a sled.
And both views are RIGHT, because the whole film is about seeing Kane through the eyes of the other characters. It is the most subjective narrative that has ever been filmed (yes, more than Rashomon) because all the characters are correct about Kane… from their point of view. They only know him from the moments they spent WITH him… and we as an audience only know Kane from the impressions they give us.
This is what LIFE IS… we cross paths with so many people in our days on this earth, and we can’t truly know them any more than the characters in Citizen Kane know the man who died in Xanadu.
“I don’t think any word can explain a man’s life” says a character at the end of the film, and that is exactly right. And no one can truly know who you are either… even if you recorded your every thought and action in a comprehensive volume. Because no one can live life through your eyes.
Even if they read every word.
(Just try not to end that document with the word “Rosebud.” It’s been done…)