Educated: A Memoir

Educated: A Memoir

By Tara Westover

Read in 9th Grade

Tara was born in Utah, to a very devout Mormon father and 6 siblings. Her father owns a junkyard where all the kids work. He is also anti-socialist, believing that the Government and Medical Establishment are conspiracies. He pulled all his children out of school and is always trying to be “self-reliant”. He buys guns, buries gasoline, and cans fruit. He believes The End of Days, described in the Bible, is coming. Tara grows up in this atmosphere, constantly trying to figure out what’s right and wrong. She stays away from the “normal” people, but her views start to change when the world doesn’t end. She begins to diverge, discovering a singing voice that takes her into the other world that her parents worked hard to separate her from. Her favorite brother, Tyler, goes to school, then college, which inspires her to do the same. At the same time, her father’s craziness become better funded. Her mother was introduced to midwifery by Father, who claimed it was necessary to be “self-reliant”. She trembles at the thought, but eventually becomes the best midwife for hundreds of miles around. Tara can see a different side to her mother when she is delivering, strength and courage that disappears before her father. As time goes on, her life in the normal world and the mountain on which she lives become harder to separate. Her father increasing becomes convinced she is a wh*** when she associates with boys, whom she breaks up with more than once when they see the truth about her. Education is the final division. She passes the ACT and goes to BYU, where she gradually changes, learning that reality is not what her father taught her. She still feels out of place though, because of her lack of high school education. But by some miracle,  or perhaps cruel fate, she graduates and is invited to Cambridge University for research. There, she is an ocean apart from her father, widening the divide between them. When she begins having flashbacks to when one of her brothers, Shawn, bullied her, she accuses him. Unfortunately for her, Father protects Shawn, leaving her with only one choice - choose between her family, or the new reality she has earned through education.