SYMBOLISM / MOTIFS / IMAGERY / SYMBOLS

The primary motif of the novel is the game of Sam Westing's will. This can be broken down into two parts: the will itself and the game it sets in motion.

The motif of the will ties into the sense of inheritance, of being able to pass along one's legacy to others. In that sense, the Westing game succeeds: an heir is indeed chosen when Turtle Wexler solves the mystery and tracks down Julian Eastman. The will not only stands as a set of clues to the game, but also as a statement by Sam Westing to people he's wronged or neglected. In that sense, the will is an embodiment of regret, a desire to right previous wrongs and to erase the bad history from the past to pave a way for the future. In this way, it defies death and asserts control over one's legacy and those who earn that legacy. As a player and manipulator in the game, Sam Westing does exactly these things throughout the course of the novel, though he only pretends to die - twice - in order to do so.

A game has certain characteristics: it is a challenge placed on the players, there are a set of rules that must be followed, and the goal is to win. All of this is indeed imposed on the Westing heirs, though the goal of winning is left nebulous by Sam Westing on purpose, tying into the theme of interpretation and the many ways it can take place. The notion of a game also lightens the mood of the story, keeps the violent threats - of a murderer and then a bomber - from making the novel too threatening. Indeed, several of the Westing heirs don't believe that Sam Westing was murdered and some simply don't treat the game seriously at all.

Other games are also played in the course of the novel: the mystery begins with a dare that Turtle Wexler accepts to stay in the Westing house, while Douglas Hoo's pursuit of Otis Amber is treated by Otis like a game of tag. The most important game outside of the will is chess, a game that takes great intellectual effort and a keen sense of strategy. Quite tellingly, all the heirs play chess in the novel do so against a different disguise of Sam Windkloppel: young Josie-Jo Ford plays the game against Sam Westing, Chris Theodorakis plays unwittingly against Sandy McSouthers, and Turtle Wexler plays against Julian Eastman. Finally, this tradition is passed along - as does the rest of Westing's inheritance - to a grown-up Turtle, who plays chess with her niece Alice.

A related symbol is the building Sunset Towers: like the will, it is constructed by Sam Westing to gather together his family. Also like the will, it is confounding in how it's constructed, as the opening paragraph points out that Sunset Towers does not face the sunset. By its nature, the building is a communal space, but this sense of community is heightened as a result of the Westing game. Partnered heirs spend time in each other's apartments as well as visiting other heirs; people start posting notes on the back door of the elevator as a makeshift bulletin board; during the blizzard after the first reading of the will people leave their apartment doors unlocked; the eateries on the ground and top floor become a regular source of food for many of the tenants.

In contrast and contraposition to the newly built Sunset Towers is the Westing house which faces it. From the start, it is a bleak symbol: abandoned and uninhabited, then purposefully associated with a ghost story about a dead man, Sam Westing's corpse on the Oriental rug. Where the Sunset Towers represents new life and the bringing together of Westing's "niece and nieces", the Westing house represents the tragic past that Sam Westing is trying to correct through his will and his game. Thus, the destruction of the Westing house at the end of the novel is also the act of letting go of the past in order to move forward.

Marriage is a minor motif of the novel, tied into the theme of family. Marriages are problematic at the beginning: the Wexlers and Hoos are unhappy in their unions, while Angela Wexler is getting married to Denton Deere to please her mother. Haunting the Wexler-Deere engagement is the specter of Violet Westing's tragic engagement, which resulted in her suicide; readers are told repeatedly that Angela Wexler bears a strong resemblance to Violet Westing, and that Theo Theodorakis bears a resemblance to his father George, who was Violet's true love. Thus, readers suspect that Theo and Angela will unite, a red herring about the past repeating itself. By the end of the novel, the Wexler and Hoo marriages have become happier, Angela willingly married Denton on her own terms, and there are several other happy marriages for the heirs. This includes the union of Theo Theodorakis and Turtle Wexler, who in solving the Westing game is the true heir to Sam Westing and the "new" Violet in Sam's affections. Thus, George's son Theo and Sam Westing's niece happily overcome the past tragedy of Violet Westing, though perhaps not completely as they decide not to have children.

The last important set of motifs are those which are used to help differentiate characters in the novel and help us understand their interests and motivations. These serve more as character traits or devices by which readers can gain a quick impression of the character and tell them apart more easily.

Sydelle Pulaski has her brightly painted crutches, initially not needed but used to gain attention from others; when she injures her ankle for real when the bomb goes off at Shin Hoo's Restaurant, the crutches symbolize a poetic justice in putting on such a facade. Chris Theodorakis is associated with birdwatching, indicating a heightened level of observation that is largely ignored by the people around him. Turtle Wexler has her braids and shin-kicking, respectively representing her childishness and a blunt desire to solve life's problems; tellingly, she loses her braids by the climax and the shin-kicking becomes a crucial clue in solving the Westing game. Angela Wexler has her embroidery and tapestry bag, busy work that stands in the place of what she can accomplish as a doctor - and thus, a Raskin-esque pun on the notion of "mending".

Berthe Erica Crow is associated with religious zeal, but this zeal also has a compassionate side seen in her soup kitchen work and her secret affection for Angela Wexler, who resembles her dead daughter Violet Westing. Sun Lin Hoo has her cooking and her tight Chinese dresses, representing the confinement she feels in her American life; both are abandoned when she becomes a business partner in selling husband James' paper innersoles. Douglas Hoo has his running and his medals, to remind readers of his athletic prowess. Otis Amber has his aviator's cap, which helps reinforce the idea that he's a simple-minded buffoon. When he reveals he is actually a private investigator in disguise, he removes his aviator's cap and idiotic demeanor at the same time.