Educated is an absolute page-turner — it is gripping and shocking. It reads like a novel and has many of the same elements that are found in a work of fiction. The protagonist is on a quest and there is substantial conflict with the story’s antagonists —her father and oldest brother.
At its core, Educated is about Tara’s search for self and her transformation. Moreover, it speaks to the resilience of the human spirit as well as the power of hope and determination. It is a remarkable story and I am very glad that Westover had the courage to write it.
As a young child, Tara quickly realizes that her family is different. For starters, they don’t go to school. Her father does not believe in them — he views schools as government-supported brainwashing.
Dad said public school was a ploy by the Government to lead children away from God. “I may as well surrender my kids to the devil himself,” he said, “as send them down the road to that school.”
While her oldest siblings were homeschooled, being the last of seven children, Tara did not get much in the way of education. By that time, her Mom was busy with midwife duties and growing her small business of oils and tinctures.
Tara does not “exist” — besides not attending school, she doesn’t have a birth certificate (born at home) or any medical records (has never seen a doctor). It is not until she is 9 years old that the she becomes “legitimate” and gets a delayed certificate of birth.
I remember the day it came in the mail. It felt oddly dispossessing, being handed this first legal proof of my personhood: until that moment, it had never occurred to me that proof was required.
Tara’s escape from this very dysfunctional world, where she and her siblings are actually maimed while working at their father’s junkyard, is through books. At the urging of Tyler, one of her older brothers, she undertakes a program of self-study in order to pass the ACT test so that she can attend college. It’s unbelievable in this day and age that she first enters a classroom at the age of 17 at college. Tara is extremely disadvantaged because of her lack of an education and struggles to “catch up.” But her perseverance is remarkable and she pushes forward. Her father’s opposition to a traditional education is well illustrated by these two quotes about college:
“College is extra school for people too dumb to learn the first time around,” Dad said.
“There’s two kinds of them college professors,” Dad said. “Those who know they’re lying, and those who think they’re telling the truth.” Dad grinned. “Don’t know which is worse, come to think of it, a bona fide agent of the Illuminati, who at least knows he’s on the devil’s payroll, or a high-minded professor who thinks his wisdom is greater than God’s.”
Along her journey, she is plagued with self-doubt, unsure of what exactly is real. One of her older brothers, Shawn, is abusive and tries to brainwash her into believing in a view of herself and a reality that run counter to her own. Because he is so manipulative and good at it, Tara begins to blame herself for the troubles she has with Shawn.
I begin to reason with myself, to doubt whether I had spoken clearly: what had I whispered and what had I screamed? I decide that if I had asked differently, been more calm, he would have stopped. I write this until I believe it, which doesn’t take long because I want to believe it. It’s comforting to think the defect is mine, because that means it is under my power.
It’s strange how you give the people you love so much power over you, I had written in my journal. But Shawn had more power over me than I could possibly have imagined. He had defined me to myself, and there’s no greater power than that.
Once Tara experiences the outside world, it becomes more and more difficult for her to be silent and accept the dysfunction at home. While growing up, Tara had only one reality and had no choice but to fully accept and embrace it. While the outside world was always considered to hold the wrong or irrational views, now Tara begins to see her family as deviant. Tara struggles with trying to understand the dynamics in her family and tries to make sense of the dysfunction.
As Tara’s world grows and she learns more, she is faced with tremendous cognitive dissonance. How do you reconcile these two diametrically opposed belief systems — the world view ingrained in her by her parents and a new reality borne out of learning and new experiences?
....I felt alienated from myself. I didn’t know who to be.
Once her eyes are opened, she cannot return to the limited perspective she had before. While reading, I couldn’t help but think that If Tara had never pursued a formal education, she would’ve remained trapped in this world, brainwashed and possibly broken.
Ultimately Tara’s goal is something that many of us take for granted — to develop and shape her own mind with her own attitudes and beliefs. She yearns for the freedom to choose for herself what to believe after being told by her family how to think and what to think. You see, it wasn’t just Shawn manipulating her, it was also her parents who brainwashed her.
Everything they did had always made sense to me, adhering to a logic I understood…But here, so near the university, they seemed so unreal as to be almost mythic.
My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute.
It’s astonishing that I used to believe all this without the slightest suspicion…
Educated is a beautifully written and an extremely well constructed memoir. There were many times as I read this book that I wanted to reassure Tara and give her a hug. You cannot help but feel for her and root her on. Tara Westover has enormous insight and wisdom for her age and she has come to the conclusions she has in order to live a life of her own. She has outgrown her family, save for two siblings that also pursued an education. Interestingly enough, all three of them received Ph.D. degrees while the four siblings left behind did not complete high school. In order for Tara to survive, she had to leave her past behind.
The past was a ghost, insubstantial, unaffecting. Only the future had weight.
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