The Westing Game written by Ellen Raskin is a book that describes the crack of a mystery made by a “dead” person Sam Westing. He assigned sixteen people who have connection with him to be his heirs, and he said that one of the heirs was his murderer. He also designed a game for heirs to find the criminal, which was exciting. His “will” actually plays an important role in the plot’s development, which interestingly says that some are not who they are, and some are not who they seem to be. As a result, change comes to be one of the central themes of this novel. The change of characters becomes the most significant part in that novel.
Turtle, who is known as a brat, likes kicking people’s shin when they drag or even accidentally touch her braid. She seems to be very naughty and headstrong at the beginning of the story, not only being rude to her mom and Angela, but also to the dressmaker Flora. The little girl insists on letting Flora make her costume first when she is busy dealing with Angela’s wedding dress. She acted no less than crudely and egoistically.
However, as the story folds out, and with the growth of Turtle, she surely changes. One major difference is that she starts to save secrets for others. Several bombs occur in SunTower, where the heirs live. When the little girl is impeached of bombing at Angela’s engagement party, she replies calmly that she wants to see a lawyer. Afterwards, in hospital, when she realizes a strange thing that her sister Angela is the true bomber, she chooses to keep the secret and pretends to confess in front of people. This reflects a more mature Turtle.
Actually, in the end, Turtle becomes totally different from who she used to be. After finding Westing is still alive, who disguises himself as Julian R. Eastman, the current president of Westing Corporation, again, she prefers to save this secret to other heirs.
Turtle Trial further confirms the change of Turtle. The trial is near the end of the story, which helps unfold the truth of Mr. Westing’s mystery. At that trial, Turtle objectively and clearly proves the innocence of Crow, which shows her cleverness and unimaginable critical thinking ability. She clarifies that Sandy, the doorman is actually Sam Westing, and there is no murderer because Westing died of the exhaustion of his life-sustaining medicine. Turtle argues that indeed, Westing’s life is taken from himself, who is disguised as one of the heirs Sandy, corresponding in his quote “my life was taken from me-by one of you”.
One more aspect is that Turtle starts to call herself T. R. Wexler, which is more formal, and perfectly finalizes her character change in that book.
Obviously, she is not the brat anymore.
Sam Westing is also a great example of character’s change. He should only be a famous industrialist who was found dead. However, miraculously, he seems to have perfectly predicted what will happen at the Westing House meeting when each clause of his will is declared, which puzzles the heirs. While nearly all think Mr. Westing’s death is confirmed and keep looking for clues indicating the criminal, the judge, one of the maids of Mr. Westing, assumes that Westing’s body, which lays on the coffin is actually a wax dummy that resembles him based on the quotation of Turtle, who has been to the Westing House the night Westing was supposed to be murdered. When the judge further checks Westing’s document, she finds nothing but an accident report from the state highway police recording that Mr. Westing had severe facial injuries, which confirms the judge’s assumption. It was the face that disappeared fifteen years ago, not the man. Westing may be alive, living with a remodeled face, and he may pretend to be one of the heirs.
Changes of Westing are continuing. It turns out that the great business man acknowledged at the end of his will that he is actually the doorman Sandy, who has gone shortly before. What was even more astonishing is that Westing actually has another identity, who is exactly the current president of the Westing Paper Corporation, Julian. R. Eastman.
