Time Smart

Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane traces the rise of its hero, Charles Foster Kane, from obscurity to the heights of wealth and influence. Although this may sound like a happy story, Kane’s trajectory is tragic. A seemingly unimportant memory from his humble childhood haunts him; a moment of idle play and uncomplicated joy. By the end of his life, Kane laments, “If I hadn’t been very rich, I might have been a really great man.”

People often see this story as a cautionary tale about the corrupting influence of power, or as a political allegory. But it is also about money and time, and how the former can distort the latter.