The Westing Game question

32 views

Someone please explain

Vanessa Nov 20, 2018 08:04PM

I finished the book, but I still can't understand it. Who really killed Sam Westing? If the answer to the puzzle is Crow, why should she win the inheritance if she is the murderer?

reply flag

Keyera (last edited Nov 20, 2018 11:24PM ) Nov 20, 2018 11:17PM 0 votes

TO ANYONE VISITING THIS POST: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE ALREADY FINISHED THE BOOK.

(view spoiler)[Sam Westing was never killed. He used two different disguises throughout the book, and pretended to be one of the contestants. The first one was named Barney Northrup, but the one he used the most was Sandy McSouthers, the doorman. Turtle figured this out at the end, during the courtroom scene. She connected the dots, mainly because of the time she kicked the lesser disguise in the shin, but later found out that Sandy had a limp, almost as if he had been kicked in the shin, himself... There were a few other reasons, but I can't remember what they were.

She never told anyone, but instead, she visited his home the next day. She was only able to do this because she figured out his fourth, and final identity. When looking at his other 3 identities, you can see a pattern: Barney NORTHrup, Sandy McSOUTHers, and Sam WESTing. There was one other character she met, who had shown up earlier on in the book, as he was a witness to the reading of Mr. Westing's will. That person was Julian R. Eastman (EAST). By visiting Mr. Eastman's house, she found Mr. Westing, who she knew by the name of Sandy. In doing this, she technically won the contest. She goes to visit him regularly over the years, in secret. After 10 or so more years pass, during the epilogue, Sam Westing/Sandy/Julian Eastman/Barney Northrup (whichever name you want to call him) dies of old age. No one other than Turtle knew he had lived that long, or that his identities, Sandy and Mr. Westing actually hadn't died during the major events of the book (except Dr. Sydney Sikes - it is implied that he knew of Westing's plan, and helped him carry it out. One way he helped was by declaring the identities of sam Westing and Sandy McSouthers dead at certain points of the story).

Crow was Sam Westing's ex-wife, from many years ago. She, too, has been using a false identity. When this was discovered, she was arrested, because all the evidence and her true identity pointed to her being the murderer (remember - most of the other characters still believe that Westing died, and that someone is to blame for his murder) but was later released, due to the help of Judge Ford.

I can't quite remember how the inheritance was split up. Turtle won, but I don't believe she got the inheritance from him. If she did, it would have been a secret because she could not reveal how she won without revealing that he was alive - besides, all she really wanted was to see Sandy again, anyways. Although, I do believe he paid for her continued education. There were those checks in the very beginning (that is what Turtle's group used to play the stock market), so perhaps that was how many of them got their money. I do seem to remember, though, that Crow was given money of some kind. It was probably either money donated by many of the other contestants for the soup kitchen, or an extra part of the will, that hadn't been read yet, signifying that Westing was going to give Crow part of his inheritance, because she had been his wife. However, most of this last paragraph has been made of guesses and intuition, so don't quote me on any of it. I may or may not be right. The past few paragraphs, though, should consist only of factual information.

Did that give you a clearer idea of what's going on? I know I didn't quite answer your question about how Crow got the inheritance, but I hope I clarified your other questions well. I only recently finished the book for the first time, myself, so I don't know exactly how reliable I'll be, but if you need any more clarification, either about the book, itself, or about what I wrote, feel free to ask me. (hide spoiler)]

flag

Keyera Haskins After writing this up, I was curious to learn about what I had missed before, so I looked it up. This site was very helpful (especially the chapter 27 ...more
Nov 21, 2018 12:54AM · flag

Books mentioned in this topic

The Westing Game (other topics)