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The Westing Game

by Ellen Raskin

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Discussion Topic

Angela Wexler's role and connections in The Westing Game

Summary:

Angela Wexler is a key character in The Westing Game. She is initially perceived as a passive, beautiful bride-to-be but later reveals a more complex personality. Angela is connected to several other characters, including her fiancé, Dr. Denton Deere, and her family members, particularly her overbearing mother, Grace Wexler. Her involvement in the game leads to significant personal growth and self-discovery.

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What is Angela Wexler's relationship with Sam Westing in The Westing Game?

Angela Wexler is Sam Westing’s grand-niece and she looks like his daughter.

Grace Wexler, Angela’s mother, claims that Sam Westing is her uncle.  This makes sense, because Grace Wexler looks like Sam Westing’s daughter, who is deceased.  If Grace is Westing’s niece, that makes Angela his grand-niece. 

Angela is “golden-haired” and “angel-faced” (Ch. 3).  She is getting married to Denton Deere.  She is her mother’s pawn, doing whatever her mother tells her to do.  This is in contrast to her sister Turtle, who is independent and boisterous.  Turtle believes that her sister doesn’t really want to get married.  Angela feels like everyone only cares about her fiancé, as if she doesn’t exist without him.

Flora, the dressmaker, is the one who makes the connection between Angela and Sam Westing.

“Angela will make such a beautiful bride. Funny how she reminds me of her.”
“Angela reminds you of your daughter?” the...

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judge asked.
“Oh my, no. Angela reminds me of another young girl I made a wedding dress for: Violet Westing.” (Ch. 13)

Angela is tormented by her coming wedding, and how it will end her future.  Their stories are very similar.  Violet was forced into a marriage by her mother too.  She was supposed to marry George Theodorakis, but she committed suicide.  This is why George Theodorakis and his family are there.  He is not exactly an heir, but close because he would have been.  Theodorakis runs the café.

Violet Westing's death destroyed her father.  Her mother clearly was deeply affected too.  She lives under the name of Crow.  Westing wanted to be close to all of his family members.  Since his daughter died, he had been lonely and lost.  Sometimes being rich isn't everything.  Angela chooses not to get married, thus preventing her from making the same mistake Violet did or ending up the same way—dead.

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What is Angela Wexler's occupation in The Westing Game?

In the story, Angela is Grace Wexler's daughter. Angela's relationship with Grace is dysfunctional and fraught with conflict. As a domineering and opinionated mother, Grace imposes her will on Angela without consideration or sympathy.

Eventually, Angela Wexler rebels against her mother's vision of a perfect daughter and goes back to college to become an orthopedic surgeon. At the beginning of the story, she is engaged to be married to Dr. Denton Deere, a plastic surgery intern at St. Joseph's Hospital, but she soon breaks off their engagement to finish her medical studies. Later in the novel, Turtle tells Julian Eastman that Angela is an orthopedic surgeon, so she does graduate from medical school.

After five years, Angela meets Denton again. He is now a neurologist but has never gotten married. As the story concludes, we find out that Angela and Denton do eventually marry, and they have a little girl by the name of Alice.

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