Tara Westover: A Bumpy Journey to Success
by Madeline Rappaport
Persevering from years of evangelical brainwashing and abuse, PhD graduate Tara Westover is an empowered, inspirational woman. Educated is a #1 New York Times bestselling memoir about the hardships and pain Westover experienced growing up in an isolated, rural Idaho town with no resource for knowledge except her family. Her domineering father pushes his patriarchal, fundamentalist views on the family, and encourages a paranoid survivalist way of life. Westover aspired to go to school and be with the other children, rather than work long hours in her father’s scrap yard. Westover took water and turned it into wine by using such limited resources to self-educate herself, and go off to college to escape a life of turmoil and isolation. Being raised a hard-worker from sunrise to sunset, Westover was able to overcome these strifeful obstacles and succeed in a world outside of the edge of a mountain in Idaho.
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Tara Westover’s background consisted of a combination of survivalist isolationism, patriarchal fundamentalism, and physical/emotional domestic abuse. Quarantined from the rest of the world with no radio, television, or other resource, Tara and her family were reliant on the father for all of their knowledge. Gene Westover strongly opposed many public institutions, such as public schooling, and believed they were “Godless”. The lack of exposure and education is shown when Tara enters college without knowing what the Holocaust was. For example, “He asked why I’d chosen Jewish history, and without thinking I blurted that I’d learned of the Holocaust only a few semesters before and wanted to learn the rest of the story.” (229). Westover’s lack of cultural literacy is shown when she is not introduced to a fundamental, widely taught subject such as the Holocaust until college. Her inability to receive an education about the world around her is a prime example of the isolationist oppression she endured her entire childhood. Tara’s capability to self-educate herself to receive a college education is admirable. She overcame many physical and psychological barriers, and came out the other side a PhD student.
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As a young woman growing up in an extremely patriarchal Mormon household, Westover faced many struggles that were centered around her gender. Her only example of marriage was a browbeating father and an incredibly submissive mother. Tara and her sister were outnumbered by five brothers, one of which loved to physically and mentally abuse her. Shawn was known as the bully of the family, and picked on Tara especially. For instance, “He grabbed a fistful of my hair, a large clump, his grip fixed near the root to give him greater leverage, and dragged me into the bathroom. I groped at the door, catching hold of the frame, but he lifted me off the ground, flattened my arms against my body, then dropped my head into the toilet. ‘Apologize,’ he said again.” (110). This is only one example of the abuse that Tara and numerous women endured from Shawn’s tyrannical misogyny. Shawn Westover learned these ways from the patriarchal perspective of his father as his only role model. Their father’s explicit actions combined with their mother’s indifference and apathy for such violence and mistreatment contributed to Tara’s subjection to this male-dominant abuse. In fact, Shawn told her father that she had started to wear a little bit of makeup, and he immediately thought that she was pregnant. 15-year-old Tara had never even kissed a boy before, and began to feed into the psychological abuse and question if she was pregnant. For example, “Days later, when it was confirmed that I was not pregnant, I evolved a new understanding of the word “whore,” one that was less about accusations and more about essence. It was not that I had done something wrong so much that I existed in the wrong way. There was something impure in the fact of my being. It’s strange how you give the people you love so much power over you…” (199) This is a perfect example of Westover realizing that her parents’ opinions aren't always valid, and how domestic abuse can make a person brainwashed into thinking that they are. This is only the beginning of when Tara begins to understand that her family isn’t the only resource for knowledge.
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Even after she escaped such a horrific upbringing, Westover struggled immensely with a completely new environment. She was not like most of the casual or “gentile” others at BYU, as she was raised in orthodox, extremist Mormon circumstances. In fact, this causes her to possess a sense of attachment to home and her family. This conflict between her new college life and the one back home caused her to become physically and mentally ill. To explain, “The thing about having a mental breakdown is that no matter how obvious it is that you're having one, it is somehow not obvious to you. I'm fine, you think. So what if I watched TV for twenty-four straight hours yesterday. I'm not falling apart. I'm just lazy. Why it's better to think yourself lazy than think yourself in distress, I'm not sure. But it was better. More than better: it was vital.” (307) Although she has a new life with many great opportunities ahead, Westover still struggles with leaving her previous life and had severe anxiety and breakdowns as a result. This is relatable for many college students and others who are pursuing something new because transitional periods are hard for everyone. In the end, Tara Westover came out the other end stronger because she was able to power through her past trauma and pursue her education further.
Shortly after being informed by Dr. Kerry‒Westover’s Jewish history professor at BYU‒about a study abroad program in England, Tara applied to Cambridge University. Even though she got rejected at first, Dr. Kerry wrote to the committee on her behalf and she was able to follow a path to worldliness and prestige. Her time at Cambridge broadened her horizons not only outside of her house beside the mountain in Idaho, but to an entirely different country and culture across the pond. She took on rigorous courses at the top ranked school and met someone who saw her full potential; Professor Steinberg was Tara’s supervisor who quickly took a special interest in her. He had not only heard about her bumpy past, but saw that she had a bright future ahead of her. Although she was thankful for his positive reinforcement, Tara still was recovering from her past trauma. This made it very difficult for her to think of benevolence as a normalcy from her superiors. For instance, “I could tolerate any form of cruelty better than kindness. Praise was a poison to me; I choked on it. I wanted the professor to shout at me…” (240) Tara explains that she has persistent insecurities that are difficult to shake from traumatic childhood memories. Such self-doubt impedes her ability to receive approval from her professors. Nevertheless, like in most instances in her life, she was able to overcome the impossible. Luckily, she was not in this rugged journey alone. Dr. Steinberg was a key figure in Tara’s life; he provided her with the confidence necessary to succeed, and helped her apply to graduate school and further her education.
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Being both strong and academically motivated, Westover was able to escape a prejudiced past by beginning her educational journey and becoming submerged in a world of learning and accomplishment at BYU, Cambridge, Harvard, and beyond. Through this demanding yet rewarding process, she truly becomes educated. What it means to be educated is to have a greater understanding of the world around you, and gaining a sense of maturity and knowledge about other cultures. Westover was born into a family in complete opposition of such advancement of learning, and was deprived of the resources required to become educated about the world around her. She was in survival mode, and stuck in a little universe that was hundreds of years in the past. With the help of her older brother telling her to advance her education by going to college, Westover worked endlessly to study for the ACT and accomplish this goal. Not only did she get her Bachelor’s degree, but she went above and beyond and graduated with a PhD in history. She is now a renowned author of the book Educated, and has won numerous awards. She is the face of perseverance and hard work, and is living proof that despite your rough circumstances, you can succeed if you work to become educated.