Line #16 YMMV/TheWestingGame


1	----
2	!!Book
3	* EnsembleDarkHorse: Otis Amber gets few if any [=POV=] scenes, but is one of the better-liked heirs due to being a LargeHam CloudCuckoolander [[spoiler:who is mostly faking that persona (the background report he writes about himself still shows some quirky humor) and is secretly a dutiful and efficient PrivateDetective with a good sense of ethics and compassion]].
4	* FridgeBrilliance:
5	** Giving Judge Ford clues that she interprets as offensive may actually have been a deliberate ploy to keep her from having her ''clues'' researched by outside agents, the way she'd had the heirs and Westing investigated. Because their content had racist overtones, hiring someone else (probably someone white) to track down possible meanings for [[spoiler: SKIES AM SHINING BROTHER]] would've been terribly embarrassing for both parties.
6	** How do you win the game? By finding [[spoiler: the "fourth," namely the fourth identity of Windy Windkloppel, Julian Eastman]]. And how does the winner ([[spoiler:Turtle]]) find it? [[spoiler: By reading the financial section of the paper, where his name comes up earlier on in the story if you look closely.]] Thus, Sam Westing could guarantee that his money went to someone who [[spoiler:knew how to manage it well]]. It's even probable that Westing has been planning this for a long time, at least since [[spoiler:the car accident, since Eastman had to have the right credentials (supplied by Westing) to run the company all these years]]. As a bonus, [[spoiler:Eastman is the ''fourth,'' and his name is ''Julian,'' another secret Fourth of July reference]].
7	* HilariousInHindsight: Judge J. J. Ford, the first black person (and first woman) elected to a state judgeship, [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama went to Columbia and got her law degree at Harvard]]. In the epilogue, it's revealed that she's appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
8	* JerkassWoobie: Crow. She's a grumpy, anti-social woman who [[spoiler:lives with the guilt of pushing her daughter towards a marriage that caused the daughter to commit suicide]]. This is shown to still affect her, as evidenced by her repeated desire to comfort Angela ([[spoiler:who is in the same position]]). Near the end of the game, [[spoiler:she's perfectly accepting of the fact that she was just named as Westing's murderer and names herself as the "answer" to the game despite being able to walk free if she kept quiet (no one else was willing to name her). The reason she did it? So she could donate half of her winnings to the soup kitchen she worked at and the other half to Angela, so Angela would be free to go to medical school.]]
9	* ValuesDissonance:
10	** The portrayal of the Hoos shows a very '70s view of Asians.
11	** The use of the words "retarded" and "mongoloid," which weren't considered offensive at the time. The latter is edited out of later editions.
12	** Although it is only mentioned in passing and doesn't really become relevant until what Ford does for him during the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue, Jake Wexler is a bookie--and as revealed elsewhere in the book, he's a [[GreedyJew Jew]].
13	** The whole "we can't afford college for Angela so she ''has'' to get married" undertone to Grace's relationship with her eldest daughter hasn't aged well at all, either -- though that's really just Grace's problem, Jake is fine with her attending medical school, costs and all, and Angela's situation is portrayed as extreme for its time.
14	*** Even more so, Grace's insistence that Angela ''didn't need to learn how to drive'', because such a beautiful girl could easily convince men to chauffeur her around.
15	** The idea of plastic surgery as not medically necessary can be seen as dated nowadays when it is more understood how the relationship with your body and image can affect your quality of life and mental health in general, plus the fact that it's used to help reconstruction for victims of serious accidents (like burns).
16	* ValuesResonance: Overall, however, the book portrays bigotry in a nuanced and subtle way, including patronizing versions -- i.e., most people treating Chris like a child for having a disability -- and more complicated relationships. Notable is Sam Westing, who won't let his daughter Violet play with Josie-Jo Ford, the daughter of the Black servants, but does play chess with her (albeit while belittling her). Westing later pays for Judge Ford's expensive education and possibly pulls strings to get her first jobs; it's left ambiguous how much was genuine charity and how much was transactional or guilt-based. These complex portrayals are likely part of why the book is still taught today.
17	* TheWoobie:
18	** Aspiring writer/chess-player and [[TheDutifulSon dutiful son]] Theo Theodorakis, whose primary duties are to his parents' business and his ill younger brother. His infatuation with Angela goes unrequited, and he later becomes a suspect in the Westing House bombings after accidentally blowing up his high school chemistry lab. [[spoiler:The fact he becomes a well-respected reporter, a published (if not particularly successful) author, and marries the now-hot-and-soon-to-be millionaire Turtle takes some sting out of it.]]
19	** Angela as well. She spends the book dealing with her mother making a huge fuss out of the upcoming wedding, which Angela doesn't even want to do. She doesn't seem to have many friends and her bridal shower is full of women she doesn't even know. And she feels she can't just call off the wedding because she doesn't want to hurt her fiance or let her mother down. [[spoiler:Eventually, she is so stressed that she starts setting off bombs to try to let off steam. In the process, she accidentally injures her partner (who is possibly her first close friend) and blows up her own face to keep her sister from being caught in an explosion]]. Oh, and what she originally put down as her position in life? "None".
20	** On the other side of the coin, Turtle has to deal with the fact that she is ''clearly'' her mother's {{Unfavorite}}.
21	** Grace Windsor Wexler herself has JerkassWoobie tendencies. A great deal of her unflattering, elitist, and prejudiced behavior is driven by [[spoiler:the trauma of having been ''disowned by her parents for marrying a Jew'' -- thus being brutally ''punished'' for the most open-minded thing she ever did.]]
22	** Sun Lin Hoo. She spends the first part of the book completely homesick and unable to speak any English at all. It's implied that this is the case because no one speaks to her besides her husband, who isn't all that good at speaking Chinese himself. [[spoiler:She becomes so desperate to return to China that she steals various items, but then feels incredibly scared and guilt-ridden over her actions]].
23	** Flora Baumbach becomes this late in the story, when it's revealed that her daughter whom Turtle'd envied had been mentally challenged (and is now dead, never having made it past 19), and her husband may have deserted them because of this.
24	** Subverted with Chris, who ''would'' be a pitiable character [[WheelchairWoobie due to his disabling illness]] if not that he's absolutely '''thrilled''' to be a part of something as exciting as the Westing Game, hence is too cheerful to be a Woobie. In addition, while a number of characters InUniverse show pity if not concern for him, the most notice he receives from those outside his family relates to attempts to help treat his condition (including by one character who initially was fairly contemptuous of him), which by the end of the book has resulted in him successfully living a relatively normal life outside of still being in his wheelchair. Any CharacterDevelopment relates to learning to treat him with respect, thus also averting InspirationallyDisadvantaged.
25	** Sydelle Pulaski. She seems to be friendless, is overlooked by most of the residents of Sunset Towers, and is lonely enough that she fakes having a wasting disease so she can have some attention. She's later [[spoiler:injured in a bomb blast, which turns out to have been set off by her own partner (not that Angela was expecting anyone to get hurt in it - Sydelle being in the area was completely accidental)]]. To top it all off, [[spoiler:Sydelle wasn't even supposed to ''be'' one of the heirs! Westing had planned for a woman named Sybll Pulaski (a friend of his wife's) to be included and Sydelle got her invitation by mistake. The game was possibly the most interesting thing she was ever included in and she wasn't even supposed to be there.]]
26	!!TV Movie
27	* SpoiledByTheFormat: [[spoiler:Viewers who notice that Barney Northrup, Sam Westing, and Sandy [=McSouthers=] [[ActingForTwo all share an actor]], Ray Walston, might beat Turtle to realizing that they're all the same person.]]
28	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: At least some fans of the book had this reaction to the picture.

Context YMMV / TheWestingGame