Angela Wexler in the Westing Game Essay Example

The Westing Game is a mystery book written by Ellen Raskin. It tells about 16 heirs competing to get Sam Westing's will after his mysterious death. If they figure out who killed Sam .W. Westing then they get $20 million dollars. There are a lot of unforseen twists and turns throughout The Westing Games. Angela Wexler is one the 16 protagonists in The Westing Games. She is 20 years old when first introduced to us. Angela is one of the heirs competing to get the $20 million dollars. She seems to have the most character development. She starts off as a normal girl and then we see she doesn’t have a not so normal life. She was more of a shy introverted girl whose mother controlled her every move. But as we progressed through the book she starts to go on her own path, and she begins to disobey everything and everyone. Then we come to the point I think she changed the most, the bombings. She starts to become more dangerous and then finally you see her beauty get altered.

The reason behind my claim is that throughout the book Angela seems like a normal girl who obeys everyone and everything they seem to say. Angela is portrayed as a sweet, delicate, soft spoken, beautiful girl. She is said to have never talked back to her parents, and always seems to keep to herself. The book portrays her as if she always bit her tongue. “Please be careful, Mrs. Baumbach; my Angela has very delicate skin!” stated Grace Windsor Wexler. I picked this because it shows that her mother believes she is very delicate and can't even handle a tiny prickle. It also shows that Angela’s mother Grace, doesn't want Angela’s beauty to get tainted at all. Everyone just sees Angela as beauty, not as more than a human. Which proves my claim that in the beginning she is quiet, well reserved, and only thought of as a doll.

The dangerous reason. My second reason is that Angela suddenly becomes dangerous, and we see this on PG 155. Angela is seen as someone who couldn’t do any sort of crime, she has always been well behaved and not looked at if someone were to get hurt. But everything starts to unravel. “The judge was astounded by the excited response. Angela could not be the bomber, not that sweet, pretty thing,” Judge Ford says. This sentence alone shows that not even the smartest woman, besides Turtle could suspect Angela as the bomber. Judge Ford continues to state “ Thing? Is that how she regarded that young woman, as a thing? And what had she ever said to her except.” Which means that Judge Forde only had one encounter with Angela and Judge still expects her to be innocent. This proves my claim as to, Angela started to become dangerous but were she is quiet, and well behaved not even the smartest people could figure out she was the bomber all along.

My third reason as to why Angela changed her appearance. From the start of the book we can obviously see that her beauty is precious not only to her but also to her mom. It seems like her mom prized possession. But in Chapter 16 we see that her beauty becomes tainted trying to save Turtle. “Angela was still seated on the cushion in the middle of the floor. Fragments of the scorched box lay in her burned hands. Blood oozed from an angry gash on her cheek and trickled down her beautiful face.” We can see that her face has a gash and her hands are burned. If we read a little bit more, we then see her mom recommends plastic surgery. But Angela refused and told her mom no, because Angela doesn’t think beauty is important at all. This supports my claim by stating that towards the end of the book Angela doesn’t believe in beauty and she is less strict with herself.

My Final Reason. My final reason is Angela’s occupation. In the beginning of the book we see that Grace refuses to let Angela become a doctor, and instead she wants Angela to marry a doctor. But we catch a glimpse right at the very end of the book on PG 218 of what occupation she chose to become.

“Angela. And how is your pretty sister, the bomber?” Mr Hoo States. “Turtle never knew he knew.” “Angela is an orthopedic surgeon,” Turtle tells Mr Hoo. In the end she went against her mothers words and followed her career and chose to become an orthopedic surgeon. Which proves my final claim, that Angela went against her mothers words, disobeyed her and stood up for herself. Ending in Angela getting the career she dreamed of.

In conclusion, the person who I thought changed the most was Angela Wexler. She was nice, and obedient in the beginning. But the further we read on we can see that she starts to adventure onto her own path, and starts focusing on herself. Then as we approach the book we even see that she got her dream career, that her mother once denied her of. These are the reasons that I believe Angela is one of the heirs that changed physically and emotionally the most.