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
Another handful of years later, Turtle—who now goes by T.R. Wexler—is on the board of the Westing Paper Products Corporation. With a handful of advanced degrees in law and business, T.R. is a multimillionaire who has made a fortune in the stock market. She sits by the bedside of 85-year-old Julian R. Eastman, who tells her that he is nearing the end of his life rapidly. T.R. tells him, addressing him as Sandy, that even if he dies in front of her, she won’t believe he’s dead.
This passage makes clear that Sam Westing successfully passed his legacy on. He has instilled in T.R. the playfulness, self-determination, sense of community, and fair business sense that he always wanted for himself but found derailed time and time again by conflict and tragedy. T.R. clearly loves Westing, though she still thinks of him as Sandy—the humble, self-effacing doorman who took care of her and all the other residents of Sunset Towers so well.
Themes
T.R. tells Eastman about the other heirs. Ford is now on the United States Supreme Court. Crow and Otis, she says, still run their soup kitchen—this, however, is a lie. Crow and Otis died two years ago within a week of one another. Sydelle, she says, is married to Schultz and retired in Hawaii. Eastman asks what became of Angela, the bomber. She says that Angela is now an orthopedic surgeon. Angela and Denton are married—and now they have a daughter named Alice. T.R. reveals that Flora lives with her; the Theodorakises have retired to Florida; Chris is a professor of ornithology at a nearby university. She also reveals that after winning Olympic gold twice, Doug is now a sports announcer. She does not reveal that Mr. Hoo is dead.
As T.R. fills Eastman in on the many varied fates of all the heirs, she tries her best to tell him things that will bring him pride and joy. She is careful to leave out the sad losses their little community has suffered—she doesn’t want to upset Eastman or ruin his last moments on earth. T.R. wants Eastman to go to his grave hearing only of how he has positively impacted the lives of his “sixteen nieces and nephews.”
Themes
Eastman asks about his niece, Gracie Windkloppel. T.R. reveals that Grace now has ten restaurants. Jake, meanwhile, is the state crime commissioner. Eastman asks how T.R.’s husband is—and how his writing is coming along. T.R. reveals that Theo is a novelist who is nearly finished with his second book. If the two of them have a child, she says—leaving out the fact that she and Theo have decided against having children in order to prevent passing down Chris’s disease—they will name it Sandy whether it is a boy or a girl. Eastman asks T.R. to tell Crow to pray for him. T.R. feels her mentor’s hand grow cold in her grasp. Tomorrow is the Fourth of July.
On his deathbed, Eastman doesn’t worry about his business or his financial affairs—he only wants to know about the fates of the people whose lives he touched, and who touched his life while he lived as Sandy the doorman. It is clear that Eastman has learned the lessons he wanted to pass down to the next generation—and that the Westing game was just as important in his life as it was in all the other heirs’.
Themes
When Eastman dies, with him die Windy Windkloppel, Sam Westing, Barney Northrup, and Sandy McSouthers. No one ever learns T.R.’s secret—and so a little bit of her dies with him, too. She inherits Eastman’s stock and ascends to director of the company. On the Saturday of Eastman’s funeral, T.R. hurries from the cemetery to meet her niece, Alice, for a game of chess.
This passage demonstrates how fractured Westing needed to make his identity in order to repair the mistakes of his past. In spite of his flaws—and his many aliases—T.R. came to love him, and now, after his death, she becomes determined to carry on his legacy to the next generation.
Themes
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