IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS - QUOTES AND ANALYSIS

The Westing Game is full of puzzles waiting to be solved, including the opening paragraphs:

The sun sets in the west (just about everyone know that), but Sunset towers faced east. Strange!

Sunset Towers faced east and had no towers. This glittery, glassy apartment house stood alone on the Lake Michigan shore five stories high. Five empty stories high. (1)

Immediately, the importance of a sense of direction is reinforced by the contradiction between name and fact, a pattern that would repeat itself throughout the novel. Thus, even the building where the heirs live is a part of the overall mystery, a symbol of all that follows.

Further, the building faces away from the west - that is, Sam Westing and the past - and faces east - that is, Julian Eastman and the future of the Westing fortune.

Grace stood before the front window where, beyond the road, beyond the trees, Lake Michigan lay calm and glistening. A lake view! Just wait until those so-called friends of hers with their classy houses see this place. The furniture would have to be reupholstered; no, she'd buy new furniture - beige velvet. And she'd have stationery made - blue with deckle edge, her name and fancy address in swirling type across the top: Grace Windsor Wexler, Sunset Towers on the Lake Shore. (3-4)

This internal monologue shows how Grace Wexler values the opinions of her desired social peers, but also resents that her own lifestyle doesn't match theirs. These aren't friends but "so-called friends" and she relies on surface appearances and a fake maiden name to impress them, as seen by her imagined stationery.

With the tenants confirmed, the narrator asks rhetorically,

Who were these people, these specially selected tenants? They were mothers and fathers and children. A dressmaker, a secretary, an inventor, a doctor, a judge. 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. (5)

The question posed by the omniscient narrator is playful and reinforces the themes of the novel. First to be listed are the roles of family, next are the roles based on jobs. Then the interesting identities are listed: the ones based on criminal activity and hidden identities, then the "mistake" which changes the nature of the game. True to the cozy mystery, there is a slight hint of triumph in the last sentence, a sense of an impartial observer relishing in the mistakes of the subjects being observed.

The story of Sam Westing dead on an Oriental rug is explained in the following manner by Otis Amber:

"Nobody's seen him for years. Supposed to be living on a private island in the South Seas, he is; but most folks say he's dead. Long-gone dead. They say his corpse is still up there in that big old house. They say his body is sprawled out on a fancy Oriental rug, and his flesh is rotting off those mean bones, and maggots are creeping in his eye sockets and crawling out his nose holes." The delivery boy added a high-pitched he-he-he to the gruesome details. (6-7)

The story of Sam Westing as recited by Otis has several functions. First, it gives a sense of how legendary Sam Westing has become in his decision to become a recluse. Second, it provides what readers may assume is a sliver of truth: that Westing had been living on an island far away but has returned to Westingtown to settle business. Third, it provides the right mood for Halloween and the ironic sense of exaggerated menace throughout the novel. Fourth, it foreshadows an important scene much later in the book: Sam Westing - in the guise of Sandy McSouthers - sprawled out on the Oriental rug in his house, apparently dying.

Sam Westing's will begins with a statement that seems melodramatic but turns out to be factually correct, showing the difficulties in interpreting any sort of information in the novel:

FIRST I returned to live among my friends and my enemies. I came home to seek my heir, aware that in doing so I faced death. And so I did. (28)

Westing did indeed live among friends and enemies literally, as the doorman Sandy McSouthers. He did face his death, but not a real death: rather, he allowed his identity of Sam Westing to "die" in order to further the Westing game and find his heir.

Sandy tries to be as genial to Judge Josie-Jo Ford as possible, but there is some tension when they are paired together as Westing heirs in the game:

The judge did not return the chip-toothed smile. Doorman, he calls himself, and the others had signed simple things, too: cook, dressmaker. The podiatrist had even made fun of his "position." She must seem as pompous as that intern, putting on airs with that title. Well, she had worked hard to get where she was, why shouldn't she be proud of it? She was no token; her record was faultless. ... Watch it, Josie-Jo. Westing's getting to you already and the game has barely begun.
(34)

Judge Ford is aware of the pretentious appearance of the job title she gave under "position" when she signed for her letter. However, she is also very proud of actually earning her place in the courts, pointing out "she was no token". Ironically, her closing warning about Westing getting to her is actually true at the very beginning of the passage as well - after all, Sandy McSouthers and his simple job title was what set her along this line of thinking in the first place.