Essay On The Westing Game

1439 Words3 Pages

Funerals, the place where people go for money and free food. The Westing Game by Ellen Raski is a story of a mysterious man (Sam Westing) who is murdered and leaves a fortune to one of twelve heirs. They have 10,000 dollars to find out who killed Sam and the desire for the money. They all were put into groups of two and were given clues to find his murder. The whole concept of money blinds the heirs from what is actually happening in the real world. In the Westing Game, Ellen Raski uses money to act as a power to show how strong the value of emotional power is and how we get caught up in artificial power searching for emotional power.
Money is the main source of power in the world, but in ways it can be viewed as good or bad depending on the situation. It has a negative connotation when mentioned by the word “acts”. “ Acts” means to perform a fictional role. Which shows that most things involving money are fake. Though humans associate being fake with being morally wrong,but its somehow acceptable if there is a greater power involved. Another definition for acts is to take action;do something. In this case to take an action can be either good or bad. There are many ways to come across money, but nobody cares if it is good or bad because it deals with a greater power.
In the Westing Game after the 12 heirs get news about the fortune they go back home. The next morning index cards start showing up on the bulletin board talking about lost things. Nobody noticed their stuff was missing before they found out about the cash prize. Since they found out their natural instinct was to go home and look at their most valuable things. “Lost: Silver cross on filigree chain, topaz pin and earrings, gold-filled cuff links. “Return to...

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...lue and having artificial value really changed the amount of power they felt. Research from Stanford shows that the more money people have, the more addictive it is. This causes a problem when people try to obtain items with emotional value, but end up getting caught up in money.
In the Westing Game money acts as a sign of power to show in the end money is the not the final goal and when money is involved we forget about how much more powerful emotional value is. People use things and want things with artificial value because we give it power. Power gives us control which we take and use it towards something with an emotional sense of value. The problem is that people naturally get caught up in the power of money and forget about things with emotional power. Causing us to forget about things with emotional value and eventually lose what people started saving for.

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