ANSWER KEY

1.) d

2.) a

3.) a

4.) b

5.) c

6.) b

7.) d

8.) a

9.) b

10.) d

11.) b

12.) c

13.) a

14.) d

15.) d

BOOK REPORT TOPICS - ESSAY IDEAS

1.) Make an extended family tree illustrating the "family" of the Westing heirs and how they relate to each other. How does this tree change over the course of the novel? What relevant facts do we learn, how is that significant? What does this tell us about the nature of family?

2.) Examine how this novel works as a mystery. Begin with the idea that it's supposed to be a "whodunnit" but becomes something else entirely. Is it a satisfying mystery, does it fulfill the needs of mystery readers?

3.) Patriotism is important to Sam Westing, so what portrait of America emerges in miniature at Sunset Towers? What observations on class, race, religion work, and family emerge by looking at the story from the perspective of the Westing game as an American experience?

4.) Is there any way one can read this book in an unsympathetic light: that is, that it's about unlikable characters who "get what they deserve"? How does that change the way we understand the book and its themes?

5.) What does the "mistaken" element of the story - the wrong choice of tenant - change the nature of the game? Or does it change the game at all? Consider a possible scenario if this mistake wasn't made.

6.) The heirs hold different views on Sam Westing's intentions behind the Westing game. Examine those intentions and consider what it tells us about these characters, as well as the Westing game in general.

7.) How realistic is this novel? Or rather, what parts are necessarily unrealistic and which parts are more like the real world in contrast? What does this tell us about Raskin's intentions as a writer, about the kind of lessons we're to derive from the novel?

8.) How do perceptions affect the developments in the plot? Consider the interpretations of the clues by the heirs, as well as the way the characters are perceived by the people around them. How important is the act of interpreting information, as opposed to the interpretation itself? What does that tell us of the person doing the interpreting?

9.) Heirs have to fill in their "position" when they sign for their letters about the Westing estate. With that in mind, how does work function in the novel? What work histories do we know of which characters, and what does that tell us? What are the work aspirations of the younger characters? How does this all tie into the notion of America as a land of opportunity?

10.) Could anyone else besides Turtle Wexler have solved the Westing game? Why or why not? Was the Westing game a truly fair game, with anyone able to win?

11.) Examine closely the actual will of Sam Westing and how it relates to the events of the novel. In what way is it a guiding document not just for the Westing game, but for the behavior of the Westing heirs? What parts of the will go ignored, and why? What are the lessons ultimately learned from this document?