The Westing Game By Ellen Raskin About the

The Westing Game By Ellen Raskin

About the Author • Ellen Raskin was born in 1928, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. • As a student at the University of Wisconsin, she studied journalism and fine art. • She later moved to New York where she was a freelance illustrator of magazine book publishers. She primarily designed book covers. • In 1966, she wrote and illustrated a children’s picture book, Nothing Ever Happens on My Block. • In all, she wrote four young adult novels; The Westing Game, a Newberry winner and published in 1978, was her last. • She suffered from a rare and painful connective tissue disease and died in 1984, at the age of fifty-six.

Genre • The Westing Game is a mystery. • What do you know about mysteries? K (What I know About a mystery. . . ) W L (What I want to know about a mystery…) (What I learned about a mystery…) H (How will you find out? )

The Westing Game is a written in the tradition of a “cozy mystery. ” In this type of mystery, characters work together as amateur detectives to solve an elaborate puzzle (or play a game). While characters may feel they are placed in jeopardy, they are actually relatively safe as the mystery unfolds. Most characters are likeable but often quirky.

Elements of a Mystery setting victims Characters… suspects and detectives suspense plot predictions solution evidence

Predict-O-Gram Activity for The Westing Game Work individually to place the 24 terms from the novel in one of the six categories. Then work with a partner to share your information and to explain why you placed each term where you did. You may change an answer but do so in a different color of ink.

Themes in The Westing Game • People are not always who they appear to be. (Appearances/Identity) Theme is the most important message in a • Money makes people act oddly. story. It will say something Money doesn’t always buy about life or human nature. Because theme is a happiness. (money) message, it must be expressed in a complete • America is a land of opportunity. sentence. Sometimes the (Patriotism) theme must be inferred through careful reading • There are two types of family – and analysis. the one we are born into and the one we choose. (family)

• Sunset Towers (a modern Setting of The apartment building) is Westing Game important to how the characters interact and Remember, perceive each other. setting is the • The Westing House (this time, place, and house neighbors Sunset Towers) is isolated, dark, and situation of the mysterious. story. • Lake Michigan, Wisconsin It is an important (cold climate/lake snow effects) helps set the stage plot element in for being “snowed in, ” an this novel. important part of the plot.

Characters in The Westing House • Authors use direct and indirect methods to reveal character traits. • What do direct characterization mean? • Indirect? • Ellen Raskin matched the characters for the “game. ” Think about her motivation for matching the characters the way that she did. • Protagonist: Turtle Wexler • Antagonist(s): Sam Westing (and others)…you decide

Point of View in The Westing Game • As yourself…who is the narrator? Can he or she reads minds, and more importantly, can we trust him or her? • First Person (the narrator is a character in the story…can be quite limiting…uses first person “I. ”) • Third Person (uses third person pronouns) – Omniscient (the narrator is outside the story but is all-knowing which allows the reader to understand the thoughts of all characters. ) – Limited (the narrator is outside the story and only shares the thoughts and ideas of a limited number of characters, usually one) • The Westing Game is told in Third Person Omniscient Point of View. • This is the perfect point of view for a mystery because it allows Ellen Raskin to represent the thoughts of each character at any time.