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Charles Foster Kane's Speech Summary

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The year is 1941, and Charles Foster Kane has died in his massive private palace and zoo, Xanadu. In the wake of his death, news show News on the March runs a segment on Kane’s life, including an interview with Walter Thatcher, Kane’s caretaker as a child. During the ensuing media storm, his last word, spoken only to his butler comes to light, “Rosebud”, and reporter Jerry Thompson is sent to investigate the meaning of Kane’s final utterance. Thompson sets out, and first visits Kane’s second wife, Susan Alexander at the nightclub she owns, but she is entirely unresponsive to the reporter’s inquiries, although she was known to talk of him often before his death. From there he travels to the bank that and speaks with a woman who directs him …show more content…

Around this time, Kane starts into his career in politics, first running for governor of his state, but with the clear intention of become president after his term. At one speech, Kane denounces his opponent, Jim Gettys, a corrupt political boss, who Kane promises to imprison if elected. After the speech, Kane’s wife shows him a letter with a vague threat, telling her to visit an apartment in the city. Kane goes with his wife to the apartment, where the two meet Susan Alexander, who Kane had been seeing while married, and Jim Gettys. Gettys threatens to reveal the relationship unless Kane withdraws from the race, Kane refuses, but loses the election when his affair is revealed. Soon after, he divorces his wife and marries Susan, who was mockingly called the ‘Singer’ by newspapers. Kane pays three million dollars for an opera house to be built in Chicago for his wife’s debut, but despite pouring money into her voice, her singing is mediocre and the show receives scathing reviews. The day after the debut, the Inquirer Kane finds Leland, the drama critic passed out halfway through writing a negative review for the show. Kane takes the review, and finishes it in the same negative tone just before firing Leland. When Susan reads the reviews she is furious that Kane let Leland’s review be published, but she continues to tour

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