The Westing Game By Ellen Raskin Character Analysis

The Westing Game Essay

Sixteen heirs. A suspenseful game. Sam Westing. This book has got all if it. Samuel Westing was found dead in his house across the street from the sunset towers. His will was read to sixteen people of which were all apart of his will, and of which were to participate in a game called The Westing Game. In the novel The Westing Game written Ellen Raskin, the mystery elements that were used were: main conflict, setting, characterization, and the author’s techniques of giving clues.

In The Westing Game there is three out of the four conflicts, but the main conflict is person versus person. The author wrote “I, Samuel W. Westing, hereby swear that I did not die of natural causes. My life was taken from me-by one of you!”(page

34). The text proves that there had to be some conflict meaning person versus person, for Samuel Westing to have died. There is also some conflict between the heirs, Grace and her daughter do not get along, Grace is very rude to her and disrespects her daughter. As the author wrote “ “I’m going to the party with Mrs. Baumbach,” Turtle remarked. “The sign said everyone’s invited.” Again Grace ignored her”(page 66). There was also some conflict between Mr. Sam Westing and Crow. As the author wrote “Married at 16, divorced at 40. Ex-Husband’s name: Windy Windkloppel”(page 134) the author also wrote later on in the book“I, Samuel W. Westing of Westingtown, born Sam “Windy” Windkloppel, ”(page 181) which proves that they were married and got divorced which shows there was conflict at some point between the two.
The plot is in a town named Westingtown which is a town along side of Lake Michigan, that is in the United States of America. The mystery happens all over town, but it mostly happens in the Sunset Towers (an apartment building) which is where most of the sixteen heirs live. “Here it is-the apartment you’ve always dreamed of, at a rent you can afford, in the newest , most luxurious building on Lake Michigan”. “The sun sets in the west, but Sunset Towers faced east. Strange!” “it happened to be the Fourth of July”(page 1).The Sunset Towers are right across the street from the Westing Estate, the house of which Samuel W. Westing lived before he was found dead on Halloween night. Another very common place was the hospital where a few of the heirs went for their injuries caused from The Westing Game “,the docters had come to see Angela” (page 128). It is a great setting for the novel because it gives the story more of a back story, with the setting’s uniqueness it gives the story more intrest.
There were a ton of characters including the sixteen heirs (“Chapter 5-Sixteen Heirs,” (page 26)) and all of the other people involved which concluded in there being twenty-seven characters in the entire book.

“Number of players: 16, divided into 8 pairs”(page 38) The twenty-seven characters names are as following; Turtle Wexler, Angela Wexler, Grace Wexler, Jake Wexler, James Shin Hoo, Flora Baumbach, Doug Hoo, Sydelle Pulaski, Theo Theodorakis, Chris Theodorakis, Berthe Erica Crow, Otis Amber, Denton Deere, Madame Sun Lin Hoo, Alexander Mcsouthers, J.J. Ford, Samuel W Westing, Dr. Sikes, Rosalie Baumbach, Violet Westing, Mr. Schultz, Ed Plum, Barney Northrup, Julian R Eastman, George Theodorakis, Catherine Theodorakis, and Allison Deere. All of those characters makes it hard to focus on the plot. It was hard to remember who was who and I could not get a clear image of each of the characters in my head so having all of those characters made me confused instead of helping me understand. I could not follow what was happening because I could not understand who was who. “Still suspicious,Crow slipped the innersoles into her shoes and tried walking. What a blessed relief. Otis Amber was wrong. James Sin Hoo was a charitable man.”(page 136) When I was reading that passage of text I could not remember who was who. It would not effect the plot if they lessend the amount of characters because they would still be able to confuse people on who the murderer

was.
In The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin had a few characters give clues to the eight paired groups of the sixteen heirs from the deceased, “Each pair will now recive a set of clues”(page 43), “Placing the last of the envelopes on table eight.”(page 43) I knew they were clues because it cleary stated in the book that they were clues. “Oats. Chris closed his eyes to picture the clues: FOR PLAIN GRAIN SHED”(page 49). I think that this technique was very effective because it gave me, the reader a starting point that was concrete. And then, because the abstract clues from the conversations and narrator descriptions made it enjoyable to put the different peices together to see the big picture and solve the mystery. “Berthe Erica Crow. Age: 57. Westing Connection: ?”(page 134)
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin has four mystery elements. The following are the elements that were put into this novel. The first one was the Main conflict which was person versus person, the second one was setting and explaining why this was a good setting for the novel, the third was characterization of which I explained why there are too many characters, and the last one was authorization of which I explained how the author’s technique of giving clues was effective.