The Westing Game: Similarities Between Book And Movie

“Suddenly a terrified scream-a young girl’s scream-pierced the night” (Raskin page 20). Gull Lake Middle School students read and watched the movie The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. A dead man brought together his heirs who are daring enough to play his twisted game. The heirs are tangled up with friends, foes, fireworks, bombs, false identities, and a prize of $200 million dollars. The Westing Game novel and movie contain many similarities and differences that are worth noting. The basic storyline of The Westing Game is about an old man, Samuel W. Westing, who needs an heir who is smart and cunning to take over his paper company. Each heir that he chooses receive a partner and a set of clues. Almost all of the heirs have different theories about the clues given to them. The heir that fits the description is Turtle (T.R.) Wexler. She is a 13 year old teenager who kicks people when she is angry. She ends up finding the answer to the fourth. The storyline of The Westing Game book and movie have many similarities. …show more content…
First, the chess theme plays through. Sam Westing enjoys a not-so-innocent game of chess. He uses the queen’s sacrifice to trick his victim into checkmate. Next, Turtle is the main character and the protagonist. With her crutch of kicking people, she figures out the answer to the game. By kicking Barney Northrup, she kicked Sandy McSouthers as well, who are both Sam Westing. After that, the answers to the puzzle and the game are the same in both the novel and the movie. The missing words from “America the Beautiful” spelled out Berthe Erica Crow, the ex-wife of Sam Westing. Even though there are lots of similarities, differences can be