Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Westing Game, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Solidarity vs. Individualism
Capitalism, Greed, and Inheritance
Prejudice and Bigotry
Mystery and Intrigue
Summary
Analysis
The fourteen remaining heirs sit in Ford’s living room wondering what has happened. With Crow arrested and Sandy dead, the heirs are shocked, upset, and confused. The heirs are divided: some feel bad for Crow, who has been arrested without any evidence that she committed murder, while others believe she herself killed Sandy by filling his flask with poison. Turtle laments her friend’s death. Denton chastises her for kicking her friend. Turtle swears she’s never kicked Sandy, but Denton points out that Sandy had a huge bruise on his shin. Turtle says the only person she kicked today was Barney Northrup.
This scene reveals an important potential connection between Sandy and Barney—they may, it turns out, be the same person. Turtle kicked Barney in the shin, yet Sandy was the one who showed up with the bruise. Turtle is in such a state of dismay and shock that she can’t yet begin putting the pieces together quickly—but Denton’s remarks pique her interest.
Themes
Theo reveals that Sandy was the one who knew how to play chess—Sandy was about to make his last move before he died on one of the chessboards in the game room, but Theo would have won the game anyway. Ford asks how Theo won the game. Theo replies that he took Sandy’s queen. Ford recognizes this as one of Westing’s signature moves from when he used to challenge her to chess games as a girl—he always sacrificed his queen but won on the next move. As Turtle revels in Theo’s loss, she thinks about her poor friend Sandy. As she recalls Sandy’s final moments, she realizes that his eye twitch was actually a wink. Turtle rushes over to Angela and asks to see Sydelle’s notes on the will.
In this passage, as the heirs work through the clues they’ve continued to hold close to the chest all the way up to the very end, important information begins to emerge about who is really playing who. Turtle realizes before anyone else does that Sandy may have been someone other than he appeared to be, that he may know more about the game than he ever let on, and that he may not actually be dead.
Themes
In the corner of the room, Turtle rereads the will. When she gets to the bit about Westing’s ashes being “scattered to the four winds,” she is reminded of her mother’s maiden name (and Sam Westing’s original last name), Windkloppel. She says the name aloud. Ford repeats the name once again before deducing that Berthe Erica Crow married a man named Windkloppel—she is the former Mrs. Westing. Crow has been mourning the death of Violet for years—and Westing created the game to punish Crow, whom he believed was responsible for their daughter’s suicide.
The heirs continue piecing together the impetus for the game and the background facts about those involved. Westing having changed his name from the immigrant surname “Windkloppel”—just as Grace herself did—demonstrates that the two of them are united not just by blood but by their desire for the privileges of white, upper-class American life.
Themes
Turtle continues reading the will aloud. The indignant Otis interrupts to ask why Westing would make Crow an heir when she can’t inherit anything from jail—Crow, he says, has been sacrificed. Ford realizes that Westing has duped them all by “sacrificing” his “queen” in his classic final chess move. Somehow, she knows, Westing—dead or alive—will make his last move.
Ford knows Westing better than nearly anyone else in the room—she is aware of the moves he’s making and the labyrinthine, tricky game he’s playing. There is still more to come in the Westing game—and Ford anticipates seeing what it is with a mix of excitement and dread.
Themes
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Deere tells the other heirs that they’re all being taken for a ride—Sam Westing was nothing but a lunatic. He wrote “Happy Fourth of July” into the will, but it’s currently November. Otis Amber laments that today, the 15th, is Crow’s birthday. Turtle looks up from the will, remembering that Sandy asked her for a striped candle for his wife’s birthday earlier. The game, she realizes, is still on—she can still win. Turtle tells Ford she would like to call her first witness.
Turtle continues putting together pieces of the puzzle, even as the other heirs want to give up in frustration and write off Westing’s entire enterprise. Turtle is as determined to win the game as ever—but she knows she can’t do so without the help of her fellow players in piecing together the final clues.
Themes
