The bombs that go off at four distinct moments in three different Sunset Towers locations symbolize the pent-up feelings of the people who are playing the titular Westing game in hopes of becoming the heir to Sam Westing’s $200 million inheritance. The first bomb goes off in the kitchen of the Theodorakis family’s coffee shop, the second goes off in the kitchen of Hoo’s restaurant, and the third goes off in the Wexlers’ apartment during Angela’s bridal shower. It’s eventually revealed that Angela herself is the one who set these off. The fourth, set by Turtle in order to try to maintain the illusion of her sister’s innocence, goes off in the elevator. The “bombs” are really fireworks—their colorful, noisy explosions outwardly symbolize three emotional breaking points among the heirs as their pent-up, closed-off suspicions of one another escalate and explode. The heirs, having been told that someone amongst them is a murderer, never feel fully safe around one another. These tensions rise to a head in the moments surrounding the bombings.
The bombs escalate the suspicions among the heirs—suspicions drawn on lines of race, class, gender, and social backgrounds. They also externalize the wild emotions that each of the heir is experiencing, demonstrating the need to learn to trust one another and lean on each other in a difficult, confusing time. No one suspects the angelic, beautiful Angela—a white, heterosexual, beautiful 19-year-old girl—of being the bomber, though it is she who has been setting off each set of fireworks with the hopes of becoming a victim of her own trap. Angela hates her own beauty: it is the first thing everyone sees, and it is the reason her academic career has been cut short so that she can be married off to a pompous doctor. Angela’s bombs take three attempts to fulfill their purpose—and by the third bombing (which permanently disfigures Angela’s face and hands), it is clear that the Westing game players would rather point fingers at immigrants and minorities than someone as “perfect” as Angela. The bombings, then, bring out the structural prejudice that keeps the Westing heirs from working together and trusting one another while symbolizing the tensions, frustrations, and even self-hatred that such an environment can inspire.
The Four Bombs Quotes in The Westing Game
Who were these people, these specially selected tenants? They were mothers and fathers and children. A dressmaker, a secretary, an inventor, a doctor, a judge. And, oh yes, one was a bookie, one was a burglar, one was a bomber, and one was a mistake.
The coffee shop was full of diners.
Shin Hoo's restaurant had reopened. too, but no one came.
Angela was still seated on the cushion in the middle of the floor. Fragments of the scorched box lay in her burned hands. Blood oozed from an angry gash on her cheek and trickled down her beautiful face.
The great winter fireworks extravaganza, as it came to be called, lasted only fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes later the Westing house had burned to the ground.
The Four Bombs Symbol Timeline in The Westing Game
