The Westing Game

by

Ellen Raskin

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The Westing Game: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
On September first, the carefully chosen tenants move into Sunset Towers. Behind the north side of the building, a wire fence and a NO TRESPASSING sign have been erected, warning tenants that the property beyond is part of the Westing estate—the empty old Westing house, unoccupied for fifteen years, sits on a cliff beyond the towers to the north.
Introducing the looming specter of the old Westing mansion just beyond Sunset Towers is yet another mystery trope—but the significance of the mansion in relation to the towers is another thing that is not quite what it seems.
Themes
Mystery and Intrigue Theme Icon
On September second, James Shin Hoo opens his Chinese eatery, Shin Hoo’s Restaurant, on the fifth floor. On the same day, George Theodorakis opens up a less-expensive coffee shop on the ground floor and finds himself flooded with orders from workers who live in nearby Westingtown and work at the Westing Paper Products plant. Though there is tension between the two restaurateurs, the larger problems to face the tenants of Sunset Towers are yet to come.
Raskin sets up animosity between two competing restaurateurs of different ethnicities in order to introduce the theme of prejudice and bigotry. The novel will go on to explore how people’s prejudiced thoughts and long-held stereotypes erode communities—and as Hoo and Theodorakis compete for the business of the Westing Paper Plant workers, the deeper tensions running through Sunset Towers make themselves known.
Themes
Solidarity vs. Individualism Theme Icon
Prejudice and Bigotry Theme Icon
Quotes
On Halloween, four people stand in the Sunset Towers driveway. Sandy McSouthers, the doorman, stands with high-school seniors Theo Theodorakis and Doug Hoo and the sixty-two-year-old delivery boy Otis Amber. Otis is pointing north, and all four can see that there is smoke coming from the chimney of the Westing house. Junior-high-schooler Turtle Wexler pedals into the driveway on her bicycle, having seen the smoke herself. She asks if old man Sam Westing has returned to the house. Otis Amber replies that no one has seen the man for years—rumor has it that he lives on a private island or that he died inside the Westing manor years ago and has been “sprawled out on a fancy Oriental rug” rotting away for a long time. Turtle shivers at the grisly image.
In this passage, Raskin offers readers one of their first real-time glimpses into how the new tenants of Sunset Towers interact and talk with one another. There is a gentle camaraderie between all of them—and they are all aware of the looming presence of Sam Westing, founder of Westingtown and the Westing Paper Products Corporation. As the group talks about the old man, they do so with a mixture of fear, curiosity, and disdain, signaling that Westing is a controversial figure in their community.
Themes
Mystery and Intrigue Theme Icon
Sandy suggests that the smoke is the work of delinquent kids from Westingtown. Exactly one year ago, he says, a pair of kids entered the Westing house on a dare on Halloween night. Turtle whips her head around. Doug Hoo dodges Turtle’s long braid—she kicks in the shins anyone who touches it. Otis says that the kids who entered the manor came out minutes later claiming to have been chased by a ghost. One ran off the cliff at the edge of the property and died on the rocks below; the other, he says, sits locked in a state asylum, unable to say anything but “purple waves.” Sandy laments that such misfortune befell two kids playing at a juvenile bet. Turtle, however, says she’d take any bet offered to her—she’s not afraid of the Westing house at all.
Sandy and Otis’s spooky Halloween tale speaks to an atmosphere of terror and intrigue inside the Westing manor. Rather than scaring the young kids off, the story makes them even more determined to conquer their fears and solve the mystery in front of them. Raskin ties this scene to the theme of mystery and intrigue by showing how irresistible the human drive to uncover new information about a person or a place can be. 
Themes
Mystery and Intrigue Theme Icon
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Upstairs, from the window of apartment 2D, 15-year-old Chris Theodorakis watches the group clustered in the driveway. Chris, who has used a wheelchair since the recent onset of a mysterious neurological disease, spends his days birdwatching out the windows of his family’s apartment. Even though Chris knows no one can see into the apartment, he sometimes gets the distinct feeling that he is being watched. As Chris’s body succumbs to a spasm, he watches the smoke coming from the Westing house curl toward Westingtown and sees someone with a limp walk into the side door of the house.
Chris Theodorakis sees something mysterious taking place at the Westing manor—yet the confines of his disease mean that he may be the only one privy to this information as the mystery begins to unfold. Chris can’t join the others at the Westing house tonight—and he perhaps can’t even warn them about the mysterious person waiting inside the house.
Themes
Mystery and Intrigue Theme Icon