The Westing Game

The heirs enter a room filled with sport and gaming equipment. Each of the eight card tables has two chairs. Plum reads off the rules of the game: Each team of two receives $10,000 and a set of clues. If a partner forfeits, both partners lose the money and the game, and Plum will hold their clues until the next session. Players will receive notice of the next session two days in advance. The object of the game is to win.

The teams for the game are as follows: Madame Sun Lin Hoo and Jake Wexler, Turtle Wexler and Flora Baumbach, Christos Theodorakis and D. Denton Deere, Alexander (Sandy) McSouthers and J. J. Ford, Grace Windsor Wexler and James Shin Hoo, Berthe Erica Crow and Otis Amber, Theo Theodorakis and Doug Hoo, and Sydelle Pulaski and Angela Wexler.

Plum proceeds with the next set of directions, which dictate that to cash the $10,000 check, both partners must sign. He then passes out four clues to each table. The teams try to make sense of what lies in front of them, but a general air of confusion pervades the room. Plum has hinted that it’s not the clues they have, but the clues they “don’t have” that will help them win the game. The only team who waits and watches is Sydelle and Angela. J. J. Ford feels that her clues are “minstrel show dialect” (37), but she remains and plays the game for the sake of Sandy, who reveals how much the money would mean to his family. Turtle memorizes and eats her team’s clues, while Mrs. Wexler is startled to recognize what she believes to be the order of two clues.

The final statement of the evening warns the heirs to be careful, as some people are not who they seem. Plum then bids them goodnight and instructs them to go home.

Overnight, a snowstorm hits Westingtown, and the residents of Sunset Tower are snowbound indoors or at work. The teams attempt to decipher their clues behind closed doors. They whisper and strategize.

Sydelle Pulaski notices how quickly the residents of the building warm up to her now that she’s the only one who has a copy of the will (her shorthand notes from the reading). When she goes to visit Chris Theodorakis with Angela, she comments, as she always does, on how his “smile […] could break your heart” (41). This statement makes Angela uncomfortable. Chris notices that Sydelle’s limp is fake.

Turtle is convinced that the way to win the game is to play the stock market, based on the parts of the will that read: “Take stock in America” and “Go for broke” (42). She thinks that Westing’s entire discussion of a murderer is a ploy to distract the players. She knows that if the police had been investigating, she would already be in jail for all the evidence she left behind at the mansion.

Mr. Hoo quickly categorizes Mrs. Wexler as a “bigot” after she comments on how “it’s so hard to tell ages of people of the Oriental persuasion” (44). They begin to bicker as they discuss their clues, and Mrs. Wexler storms off.

Theo and Doug are getting along much more easily, as they are already friends. They speculate that Westing’s murderer will be the only one who doesn’t want to share his or her clues and that when they put all the clues together, a message will become clear.

Judge J. J. Ford has a similar thought. She understands that “these clues were part of a longer statement” (47). Like Turtle, she doesn’t believe that someone could murder Westing because he had protection. She notices that Sidney Sikes, a doctor friend and business partner of Westing, provided Westing with a certificate of sanity. She has no reason to distrust the information. Her main question is: What connects all the 16 heirs, particularly to Westing? She believes that the supposed “murderer” is actually someone who wronged Westing and that Westing has set up this game as a way of getting revenge.

As Sydelle and Angela work together, it becomes clear to Sydelle that her partner is “beautiful, but not dumb” (50). Angela takes close note of the unintentional hints dropped by the other teams and provides important insights into the meaning of the clues. When the pair goes to Sydelle’s apartment, Sydelle is horrified to find the door wide open and the shorthand transcription of the will missing.

Sydelle and Angela put a note in the elevator of Sunset Towers asking for the return of the notebook. This prompts other residents to post notes of their own— from business-related advertisements, to Westing-game-related strategizing, to personal notes from one family member to another. Judge Ford has invited everyone to her apartment for a party that evening.

Flora Baumbach and Turtle enter the Drexlers’ apartment after Mrs. Drexler demands Turtle return home. Turtle is surprised when her mother brushes her hair gently and tells her she looks nice wearing pink. She is “so warm, so close” (55). Disappointment settles in when she realizes her mother is only trying to get clues from Turtle.

As she prepares to host the party, Judge Ford receives a tip from the local paper, which she’d contacted earlier, that Mr. Hoo once filed a lawsuit against Mr. Westing for stealing his idea for a disposable paper diaper. Mr. Hoo arrives at the same moment, carrying appetizers ordered for the party.

Mrs. Wexler arrives at the party early with her husband. She and Judge Ford make small talk until the other guests arrive. No one wants to be the first to leave, so as not to miss any key information about the Westing game. Angela begins to feel stifled as one guest after another asks where her future husband is. She feels as though they think she is “nobody without him” (59).

Sydelle and Angela are wearing matching costumes, as part of the will has led them to believe that the murderer is a twin. They’d hoped the costumes would provoke someone into disclosing this information, but Mrs. Drexler has forced Angela to change. Sydelle, slightly inebriated, walks around the party inserting references to twins into conversations with everyone and causing general confusion.

Judge Ford notices Mr. and Mrs. Theodorakis, the only two non-heirs, are at the party. They stand in the corner with their sons. Chris watches the party, trying to decipher who could have been the limper he saw entering the Westing house before the games began.

Mrs. Drexler hassles Angela about her wedding, announcing that she’s “arranged for little Madame Hoo to serve in one of those slinky Chinese gowns” (62). This puts Angela over the edge, and she rushes into the kitchen to be alone. She encounters Crow. As Angela begins to cry, Crow has the impulse to comfort and hold her, but she abstains.

Meanwhile, Flora and Turtle are trying to confirm whether a quotation from the will—“May God thy gold refine” (43)—is from the Bible or Shakespeare. As they poll the guests, Sydelle becomes suspicious about how Flora knows those words were in the will and begins questioning her. They are all disappointed when Flora doesn’t disclose any significant information.