Based on the reporters and narrations of the camera, what does the word Rosebud really mean for Kane?When Kane loses his second wife and when he...

Part of what makes the construction of the film's plot so
great is that the journalist, Thompson, is designed to find out "the truth" but is not
able to do so.  It was Welles' genius to make the argument that the modern setting is
one where "truth" in the most absolute of senses is impossible.  The best that one can
do is fumble and reach for something that might seem to be "truth."  Thompson can only
surmise as to what "Rosebud" means.  He offers up a vague and ambiguous interpretation
that it is something to do with happiness.  The idea that "Rosebud" refers to the name
of the sled that represented childhood happiness is never fully grasped by any of the
characters in the film.  Similar to the snow globe that is destroyed at the end of
Kane's life and at the start of the film, the modern pursuit of truth is always
inhibited by something, a type of barrier that allows us to have a view of it, but not
the "absolute" view of it.  In this light, Thompson is on the outside of truth, only to
be able to look at it from a distance and not be able to fully grasp it.  "Rosebud"
remains a mystery, something that we, as viewers, "get," but cannot do anything about
because the sled with its name is to be burned and discarded.  In the end, this makes
the viewers similar to Thompson in that we can see truth and can perceive it, but are
helpless to do anything that brings this sense of the absolute into
reality.