Tara Westover Becomes 'Educated'

by tieganlucy - September 09, 2019

Last week I absolutely devoured Tara Westover’s memoir ‘Educated’. I’m not at all shocked that it’s an International Bestseller and one of Obama’s favourite books of 2018.

In a small valley in Idaho, Tara Westover was the youngest of seven children living on her fathers scrap-yard. The main oddity within her life was that legally she did not exist. Due to her parent's Mormon extremism, she had no birth certificate, no school records and no medical records or insurance. Her parents were persistent in living a life free from any reliance on the state or federal government. This was because her father was aiming to make the family self-sufficient in preparation for The End of Days (which he at one point believed to be Y2K).

Tara, who had no real birthday as her family could not remember the exact day, went through a traumatic and scarring childhood. Due to their lack of health insurance, combined with the nature of her fathers work on a scrap-yard, the Westover family went through many distressing injuries, including third-degree burns on her brother’s legs and slight brain damage to her mother after a car accident caused by Tara’s father. The way Tara’s father treated his children made me furious and I was in disbelief that he allowed it to happen. As Tara’s mother was a herbalist; who eventually created a very successful essential oil business, she would ‘heal’ herself and the family with her homoeopathy.

Alongside her already distressing upbringing, Tara was also subject to physical and emotional abuse from one of her older brothers. He was manipulative towards her and caused her intense pain; meanwhile, her parents never did anything to stop him. Eventually, enough was enough and another of her brothers convinced her she should try and pass her exams to get into BYU (a Mormon university), which is where he had studied. Her parents weren’t happy but allowed her to go. It was here that she properly began her journey with education. I was thrilled to read she was finally leaving her destructive home.

In Tara’s first few days at BYU, she was appalled by the other Mormon girls in her room wearing short-sleeved tops, drinking Diet Coke and doing homework on Sunday’s. This was not how she had been taught to behave in the eyes of God. This made her feel complete unease and resentment towards the girls. She eventually realised that not all Mormons were extremists like her parents and began to learn about the nature of the real world. She had been desensitised to how her family treated her at home. Her naivety shines through to others when she is blissfully unaware of common historical events such as the Holocaust. Due to her determination, but not without some slumps and breakdowns along the way, she ends up at Cambridge University and then completes a PhD at Harvard University.

Much to my disappointment, she goes back home to visit her family many times throughout these years in the hope that they’ve changed and will accept her when she explains her brother's abuse towards her. She experiences absolute betrayal from her family members and her father says he will only forgive her if she agrees to be given a blessing by him. Her increased sense of self-worth meant that she rejected this offer and has since not spoken to her family. She realises during her education that her dad is bi-polar and it helps explain to her his attitude towards religion and authority.

This memoir sent me on a rollercoaster of emotions. I was rooting for Tara’s independence from her family from the first page. She explains such a complicated attachment to the people she thought wanted to protect her, but in reality, only damaged her. I was distraught, I was enraged, I was hopeful, I was disheartened and then I was content. Her story felt fictitious and I was in a constant state of perplexity. It is an inspirational story about how getting an education changed her life.

‘There was a moment that winter. I was kneeling on the carpet, listening to Dad testify of Mother’s calling as a healer, when my breath caught in my chest and I felt taken out of myself. I no longer saw my parents or our living room. What I saw was a woman grown, with her own mind, her own prayers, who no longer sat, childlike, at her father’s feet.’ - Tara Westover