Are you ready for a fantastic mystery packed with a wacky group of diverse characters? Ellen Raskin’s 1978 classic, The Westing Game is one of my absolute favorites. The book’s biggest weakness? Trying to keep your kids from taking the book home and reading ahead! and that’s a good problem to have 😆
The Westing Game Summary
The Westing Game is a page-turner featuring sixteen seemingly-unrelated characters who get wrapped up in a murder mystery. They are partnered up, given clues, and declared heirs to a fortune. The first pair to solve mystery will inherit the fortune!
I particularly love how, as the book progresses, the diverse cast sheds their stereotypes and become beautifully three-dimensional characters. I think the handling of immigrant families, a female African-American judge, and a character with physical disabilities is handled very well for a book published in 1978.
Morality
I use Kohlberg’s levels of moral development to help students try to figure out what motivates each of the heirs. Students love to debate whether Turtle is following her own, enlightened moral code or is just plain selfish. And of course, we see many characters evolve throughout the book, climbing Kohlberg’s levels.
This is an ongoing task which students might update at the end of each chapter. Since 16 characters are a lot to track, they might only note major changes or examples of motivation. You might also have students just pick a subset of 8 or 4 characters to focus on.
Literary Techniques
Raskin pulls out some lovely literary techniques that your writers are sure to mimic. I’d give mini-lessons on:
- juxtaposition
- cliffhangers vs foreshadowing
- red herrings
Juxtaposition
Once the heirs are paired, it’s the perfect chance to introduce “juxtaposition”. The characters are each partnered up what seem like the worst person. No one matches up. But this gives each pair lots of room to learn and grow from each other.
Grace, for example, helps Mr. Hoo improve his restaurant. Mr. Hoo give her a new purpose in life.
In the end, we’d decide which partners’ initial juxtaposition ended up making them a stronger team.
In Media Res
Raskin likes to throw us right into the action in the beginning of chapters.
The literary term for this is in media res, meaning “in the middle of things” in Latin.
Cliffhangers vs Foreshadowing
I ended up partnering these two techniques since they share some core similarities. Both cliffhangers and foreshadowing keep the reader interested. They hint at future development. Cliffhangers are more physical, immediate, and intense. Characters are left dangling off of a cliff at the end of Chapter 6 and in Chapter 7 they are rescued. But a foreshadowing is often more character-based and will pay off later.
Cliffhangers end a chapter (or show or movie or book) with an unresolved problem. A cliffhanger sets up the next chapter (or episode or a sequel).
The Force Awakens ends with Rey holding Luke’s lightsaber out to him. We don’t know what Luke will say or do. We don’t know if he’ll accept the weapon or decline it. The next movie quickly resolves this cliffhanger.
Chapter 11 in The Westing Game ends with:
Chris did not receive an answer. The meeting was adjourned due to panic.
Just try stopping your read aloud there! We simply must know, what happens next!? And the payoff is immediate. Chapter 12 resolves this cliffhanger.
Foreshadowing implies that something will happen later and is often more about a character’s development.
In The Force Awakens, the lightsaber calls to Rey. When she touches it, she sees a vision and we hear a voice say, “These are your first steps.” This foreshadows Rey’s future.
In Chapter 1 of The Westing Game we see this foreshadowing:
“And, oh yes, one was a bookie, one was a burglar, one was a bomber, and one was a mistake. Barney Northrup had rented one of the apartments to the wrong person.
Of course, we don’t know who the bookie, burglar, bomber, and mistake are. Raskin will parcel that information out slowly throughout the book. But we are not left hanging on a cliff as in the cliffhanger, though. The foreshadowing won’t be completely fulfilled until much later in the book.
Red Herrings
The Westing Game is packed clues that turn out to be dead ends. We call these “red herrings.” Mystery authors put red herrings into their stories to mix up the audience and keep people guessing. Not every clue will connect to the actual mystery and some exist to lead the audience astray.
- Judge Ford lives in apartment 4D, but the similarities between “Ford” and “Four D” are coincidental.
- Chris saw someone with a limp enter the Westing House and several different characters have limps throughout the story.
- The bomb turns out to be a red herring – planted by a character, but not related to the central murder.
Extensions
Like any great novel, The Westing Game is oozing with enrichment topics.
- The stock market
- How wills work
- Shakespeare quotes
- America the Beautiful