The Westing Game Language and Communication Quotes

As stories within stories go, this one's pretty gnarly – and effective. Before long, just about every character is retelling a garbled version of it, perpetuating the myth that Westing is long dead, or that his death is believable, and also pushing Turtle into going into what seems like a haunted house. The story gets even creepier when we find out Sandy made it up and encouraged Otis to start telling it—it's an urban myth in action.

Here we have competing stories. Theo shares his with Chris using elaborate combinations of words, and Chris recognizes this as proof of Theo's future career. He hesitates to "spoil" Theo's ideas by relating what he knows really happened. In a way, though, the story Chris doesn't tell is just as out there and spooky. As the silent watcher, Chris knows more about what the real story of what's happening over in the Westing house than aspiring writer Theo does. He may be shy, too, about the fact that (at this point) he can't communicate his version of the story with the ease and ability that Theo can.

This moment shows us the separations there can be between language in thoughts and language in speech, as well as in understanding different kinds of speech. Chris's medical condition keeps him from articulating ideas in ways some people can understand, but we know from the text's POV/narrative voice that he has very articulate inner thoughts. While we know the reason Theo's able to interpret Chris's speech – he's had plenty of practice as a caregiver – we don't know Flora's. We'll find out later that she had a disabled daughter, but for now this just creates a sense of mystery around her character.

Creepily, this moment is like the will is actually talking to the judge. It seems almost impossible that a written document – which is created before it's read, of course – could anticipate the events that would happen while it was being read down to the precise moment that they take place. And yet, that's what happens here. The will's author knows that a particular line will make Judge Ford stand up indignantly, and so the author also includes this statement to try and calm her down. It seems like the will's author has a better idea of the other characters' behavioral patterns (if not their actual identities) than they do of his.

This might as well be the theme for the whole book – it's an idea that's true in the will, in the language the characters use, and in some aspects of life. Filling in the gaps between the material that's already there is what matters, and it's how you solve mysteries, particularly this one. It's both the answer to the clues given in the will and a clue that points Turtle towards figuring out the answer to the real question the game poses. What's the missing piece? How can you use the pieces that you have to figure out what's not there? Because that's what you really are going to need.

Here Judge Ford does a great job of close reading the will, reminding herself (and by extension, the readers) exactly what Westing does and doesn't say in the will, versus what the will seems to be conveying to the other players/readers. The key here is in her repeated use of the word "implied," which puts her on a path towards thinking what else the will might be saying – someone else could be in danger.

When you consider how many other wrong answers are spouted off by other characters and quickly forgotten or tossed aside, it's tempting to pay more attention to Chris's "recitation" because he's worked so hard on it. More than any other description, this passage really points out the cruelty of his condition and the courage of his spirit. Can you imagine working for hours just to articulate one sentence? How much do we admire Chris for that?

When we're reading literature, we sometimes forget that singing can be a powerful communication tool too, because we get so focused on written text. Here, though, because everyone's been working so hard to figure out tiny elements of a larger idea, they're doubly stunned – first, by the song, and second, by the realization that they've been working with the wrong medium. It also makes sense that Sydelle would choose to reveal that she and Angela know everybody else's clues in the most dramatic way possible; she loves attention, even though she doesn't always realize when it's unflattering.

This speech Sandy makes to Turtle is important both when he says it, right after the heirs have found out their answers are wrong, and when she remembers it before the trial scene. Her memory of his encouragement, combined with that last wink he gave her, makes Turtle think that something's up, and the game's still afoot. No one else realizes the inheritance is still up for grabs; with this reminder, Sandy points Turtle in the right direction to figure out the puzzle's solution.

While we read this text along with the heirs when Ed Plum discusses the terms of the will in Chapter Six, it's not until we reread them along with Turtle in Chapter Twenty-Six that we all realize what's been missing all along. There never was any word at the end of the sentence; it's a trick hiding the real question that the heirs have to solve in order to win. And it's Turtle who figures it out.