Solidarity vs. Individualism
When the supposedly deceased founder of the Westing Paper Products Corporation, the reclusive Sam Westing, he uses his will to call together 16 seemingly random strangers. He offers these people the chance to become potential heirs to his vast estate, matches them up in pairs, and urges them to compete for a $200 million prize, thus setting in motion a battle between individualism and teamwork. Westing’s challenge to his heirs—work together or lose everything—stands…
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Capitalism, Greed, and Inheritance
As the son of immigrants turned reclusive, multimillionaire owner of the fruitful Westing Paper Products Corporation, Sam Westing knows that money is a corruptive force. Westing, who grew from humble origins into a shadowy and greedy figurehead of a massive company, knows just how much wealth and power can change a person. In deciding to bestow his inheritance upon an unsuspecting heir drawn from a seemingly random assortment of individuals, Westing offers the freedom of…
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Prejudice and Bigotry
Written in the 1970s, a time of social change in America, The Westing Game portrays an ensemble of “16 imperfect ethnics” in order to expose the prejudices and stereotypes to which people of racial and ethnic minorities and various ranges of disabilities are unfairly subjected. As a diverse group, these characters’ varied experiences show how, contrary to the message of acceptance that’s commonly espoused in American society, people’s differences are often used against them. By…
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Mystery and Intrigue
The Westing Game is a mystery novel—as such, the book contains numerous twists and turns, plentiful red herrings (clues intentionally designed to be misleading or distracting), sleights of hand, and seemingly random or useless clues which lead to an unexpected (and even profound) conclusion. By employing a classic murder-mystery structure, Ellen Raskin uses a plot full of intrigue to show how the individuals involved in the Westing game—and, by proxy, all individuals—are just as deep…
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