Sam Westing is not actually murdered by anybody, but the guests of the Sunset Towers are not privy to that information. They all believe that he is dead, and they believe that one of them is guilty. The 15th clue really drives home the idea that Westing is dead and one of the tenants is guilty.
And time is running out. Hurry, find the name before the one who took my life takes another.
Theo's motive is essentially the same as everybody else's motive. The Westing fortune is large, and having that money would be a huge blessing in Theo's life. The idea of Theo committing murder to gain a lot of money for himself is completely absurd. When Theo was asked his "position," he wrote down "brother." He sees himself as second. Chris is more important, and Theo sees himself as the brother. Chris is not Theo's brother. Theo is Chris's brother. If I had to come up with a reason for Theo to kill Westing, it would be to obtain money that would be used to care for his brother and family. That's not unrealistic. Readers find out in chapter 8 that Theo plans to give half of his $10,000 to his parents and half to his friend.
First, the money. They signed their names to the check; half would go into Doug Hoo’s savings account; half would go to Theo’s parents.
No one actually kills Sam Westing; he fakes his own death in order to be closer to his family. But most of the characters playing the Westing game have some kind of motive to murder him.
Theo's possible motive for killing Sam Westing would be the same as just about everyone else's: money. Theo is quite a selfless character, though, someone utterly devoted to the welfare of his family. If he did get his hands on the money, he wouldn't spend it on himself; he would put it towards providing medical care for his disabled brother Chris. Theo will do pretty much anything to help out his family. After all, this is a guy who willingly walks away from a partial scholarship so that his folks can pay for Chris's treatment. So it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he would take the fateful step of killing Sam Westing.
No comments:
Post a Comment