Tara Westover's Journey: Education, Family, and the Pursuit of Truth
Tara Westover's life is a testament to the transformative power of education and the complexities of family relationships. Her memoir, "Educated," chronicles her extraordinary journey from a childhood marked by isolation and limited formal schooling to earning a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. While her story is inspiring, it has also sparked controversy and debate, particularly regarding the accuracy of her recollections and the portrayal of her family. This article aims to explore the various facets of Westover's life, education, and the controversies surrounding her memoir.
Early Life and Education
Tara Westover was raised in a survivalist Mormon family in Buck's Peak, Idaho. Her parents, Gene and Faye Westover (pseudonyms), held strong beliefs against public education, hospitals, and government intervention. As a result, Tara and her siblings had limited access to formal schooling and medical care. Instead, they worked in their father's junkyard, where safety was often compromised.
Despite the lack of formal education, Tara was taught to read, primarily to study religious texts. She also participated in a local theater group, which broadened her horizons. Her older brothers, particularly Tyler, played a crucial role in her educational journey. Tyler, who was the first in the family to attend college, encouraged Tara to take the ACT and apply to Brigham Young University (BYU).
Before age 17, Tara Westover had no formal education to speak of. It is important to remember that she was taught to read (in order to read religious texts) and someone who can read and is highly intelligent will find material to read. She also describes how her singing and participation in a local theater group opened up broader horizons. And the fact that she had older brothers who found a way into college was a key point. They helped her make the transition.
Overcoming Obstacles
Tara's transition to BYU was challenging. She lacked the foundational knowledge that her peers possessed, struggling with basic concepts in history, geography, and science. She candidly describes how her early times at BYU were very, very difficult. However, with determination and the support of her professors, she excelled academically.
Read also: Learn about the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund
She studied at Brigham Young University and received scholarships that allowed her to continue attending. The pressure of maintaining her grades in order to keep her scholarship resulted in Westover feeling stressed.
One of her professors encouraged her to apply for the studying abroad program at Cambridge. After arriving at King's College, Westover was assigned to work with Professor Jonathan Steinberg. Both of her professors encourage her to attend graduate school. Westover applies for and wins the Gates Scholarship and forms a temporary truce with Gene.
Westover's pursuit of education led her to Cambridge University, where she earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in history. Her academic achievements are a testament to her intellectual abilities and resilience. The Gates Cambridge Scholarship is a HUGE achievement, like winning the Olympics for a young academic. And the selection involves not just being an expert in your field, but having a broad perspective, being logical, and articulate.
Family Dynamics and Abuse
"Educated" delves into the complex and often turbulent dynamics within the Westover family. Tara's relationship with her brother Shawn (a pseudonym) is particularly fraught with conflict. Shawn is portrayed as a volatile and abusive figure who subjected Tara to physical and emotional torment.
In the weeks following a car crash, Tara experienced great difficulty moving her neck. Her mother’s homeopathic treatments and energy healing did nothing to alleviate her pain. It was at this time that a figure with whom she’d had little previous contact entered her life: her older brother Shawn Westover.
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Other warning signs of Shawn’s unstable and combative personality soon emerged. When he would drive her to rehearsals at the theater, Shawn would bait and bully Tara’s friends there. He would flick off their hats or knock soda out of their hands, to dominate and humiliate them.
One day, Shawn Westover ordered her to fetch him a glass of water, and threatened not to drive her into town the next day if she didn’t comply. Perhaps tired of his bossiness, Tara dumped the glass on his head. Shawn’s reaction was swift and brutal. He chased Tara down the hallway and demanded she apologize. When she refused, he lifted her off the ground by her hair, dragged her into the bathroom, and pushed her head into the toilet.
He then used on her one of the same torture techniques he had taught her on their recent road trip: twisting her wrist and pushing it in a spiral against her inner forearm, causing excruciating pain.
One morning, she woke up to a blinding pain of what felt like needles in her brain and throat. It dawned on her that Shawn was astride her, choking her with both hands, while screaming “Slut!” and “Whore!” It was only through the intervention of her mother and Tyler that Tara survived the assault.
Shawn Westover was in a particularly hostile mood at dinner, making cruel and snide remarks to Tara and Charles. When Tara told Shawn not to touch her after he jabbed one of his fingers into her ribs, the situation rapidly escalated out of control. Shawn pinned her down to the floor (just out of view of everyone else), cutting off airflow through her windpipe. Later on in the evening, he gut-punched her as she was bringing dinner rolls to the table. When Tara protested again (her resistance was obviously a trigger for him), Shawn once more pinned Tara to the floor and dragged her to the bathroom, where he shoved her face into the toilet. In the course of this attack, Tara broke her toe. This time, the assault was in full view of the family-and Charles.
Read also: Learn more about Westover's inspiring path to knowledge
When she was back home a few weeks later for Christmas, she was out driving with Shawn Westover when they happened upon Charles’ car in the parking lot of the local gas station. Shawn, with cunning instinct, immediately recognized that Tara didn’t want Charles to see her with Shawn, especially since she was covered in soot and grime from the junkyard. Shawn, of course, saw an opportunity to inflict maximum humiliation and emotional trauma on his younger sister. He demanded that she accompany him inside. When she refused, he snapped. He dragged her out of the car and pinned her face-down onto the asphalt parking lot, breaking her wrist and ankle in the process. This attack was in public, so there were plenty of onlookers (though thankfully not Charles).
Tara’s feelings toward Shawn were complicated. On the one hand, he was a violent abuser who seemed to have little regard for the physical and emotional safety of others. On the other hand, however, she did enjoy a special bond with him.
As the years go on and Shawn’s abuses extend to his wife, Emily, Tara decides she has to take a stand. She tries to band together with her sister Audrey, who has also suffered abuse at Shawn’s hands, but when Audrey is threatened with being disowned, she recants her accusations, leaving Tara alone. Each time Tara visits home, she’s subjected to Shawn’s increasingly unhinged violence-and taunted by the total immunity his off-the-wall cruelty affords him.
Tara's decision to confront her parents about Shawn's abuse led to a rift within the family. Her parents and some of her siblings denied or minimized the abuse, causing further emotional distress for Tara. This conflict highlights the challenges of breaking free from a dysfunctional family system and the importance of speaking out against abuse.
Controversies and Criticisms
"Educated" has been praised for its powerful storytelling and its exploration of themes such as family, identity, and the pursuit of knowledge. However, the memoir has also faced criticism, particularly from members of the Westover family who dispute Tara's account of events.
Some have questioned the accuracy of specific details in the book, such as the severity of her father's injuries and the extent of the family's isolation. Her parents had complained that she was not truthful. It listed her parents names as Val and LaRee Westover. Portion of it is public and there was a picture of Val. He has no scars at all. I don’t see how someone could’ve been burned as badly on their face as she said he was in the book and not have scarring. And from Tyler‘s page you can see he is friends with Tara, so I do feel that it is not a different families page. I am started to think the book was heavily fabricated.
One of her brothers (can’t remember the name but it was the one she considered a particular ally) had a blog up at one point. He disputed many of her claims about how isolated they were and what the quality of the home education they actually got was. He has since taken that blog down but one point he made has stayed with me. While I am now as inclined to take his account with a grain of salt as I am Tara's and her parents' lawyer's, the undisputed fact is that 3 of those kids went on -- from the same circumstances -- to get PhDs. In light of that I think you have to wonder how singular she is and what contributed to that quest for scholarship was that she wasn't completely honest in acknowledging. Her achievement is hers to be proud of.
Others have accused Tara of exaggerating or fabricating events to create a more dramatic narrative.
It is so unnerving to read that some readers think that Tara has embellished her story. Exactly the same thing that her parents did to her. Parts of it certainly seemed unbelievable to me.
It reminds me that the book "Tatooist of Aushwitz" was similarly proven "fictional" in many parts. And the book "The Silent Patient" is also buried under much of its storyline by people who note no one with the "author's" viewpoint could ever have passed muster to be certified as therapist in any reputable place of learning, certification.
Some readers have found it difficult to believe certain aspects of her story, such as her rapid academic progress and her ability to overcome the challenges of her upbringing.
Teach yourself Trig and get almost straight As as a freshman at BYU, yet not knowing who Shakespeare is, the difference between continents and countries, how babies are conceived, how slavery ensued, what the Holocaust was. This story would hold the same amount of intrigue if only speaking to the familial, physical, emotional, psychological and social hardships she endured, absent the sensationalist elements of her excelling in college to a degree so unlikely it’s almost insulting to read of.
It was the part about her riding the horse which bolted that made me doubt the veracity of the story. If she was such an experienced rider, that rode unbroken horses, then why did she cling to the saddle horn and wait for her brother to rescue her? How did he come up beside her on a narrow mountain trail and how did he turn the horse in circles to slow it down on the side of a mountain?
However, many readers and critics have defended Tara's account, emphasizing the subjective nature of memory and the challenges of recounting traumatic experiences. They argue that even if some details are not entirely accurate, the overall narrative captures the essence of her experiences and the impact of her upbringing on her life.
Although it is possible that Tara Westover exaggerated the severity of some of the injuries (perhaps because she was young and frightened at the time they happened), I am surprised and disappointed at the tone of some of the comments here implying that she is some sort of fraud. She is a credible witness! She provides many details and a coherent account of really awful times she came through. And by calling her a fraud, readers add to her lifetime of being misunderstood and not accepted.
I thought Tara herself very deftly explored the nature of truth and how different people experience exactly the same event and recount it entirely differently. She does not claim to have the perfect truth, she claims to have her truth.
If you look into statistics on retaining details years after events, you'll find memory is extremely failible, which would account for why there are variations in details from siblings.
As therapists, we begin each and every intake session with limits to confidentiality, one of which is the knowledge of abuse or neglect of a minor or impaired adult. Disturbing throughout the book was, of course, Westover’s propensity toward continually revisiting the scene of the crime. The only assurance I had that she was still alive was the fact that the book had been published post hoc. As I retold and read aloud passages of the book to my husband, even he was shocked that Westover allowed herself to be alone with Shawn again and again. He astutely asked me, “Does she have Stockholm Syndrome?” Although I had never considered it, being so absorbed by the memoir, there is a good chance he was absolutely right. Appreciated throughout the memoir was Westover’s own inquiry into the possibility of her own “madness” so to speak. Was she imagining things? Was her memory to be trusted? Could she find evidence? These are the challenging aspects of her story. While proof is sought out in first-person accounts and inquisition, little proof is needed when examining the psychological ramifications of these events. We need not look further than Westover’s loss of her first love and second significant relationship to see how deeply family issues can invade and destroy future lasting unions. Westover’s own mental breakdowns, accounts of waking up screaming in the streets, of staying in bed all day is not unlike an offshoot of her father’s mental illness sprouting a small seed within her. After all, it is not just genetic predisposition, but also environmental stressors under which severe mental illness develops. The conflict is very real and one that many of us have dealt with-how do we honor our families especially when mental illness causes such deep disruption in our own equanimity? The self-care and boundaries that therapists so frequently tout pertain to the reality that without a full cup of our own, we are only draining away our own vital energies when tending to the needs of others.
Logically speaking, why would someone note that her sister was actually taken to the doctor once so she is truthful to the facts but lies about such an important event as having her father badly burned?
Ultimately, the truth lies somewhere in the intersection of individual perspectives and lived experiences. It is quite probable that both sides (Tara and her supports Vs the parents and their supports) honestly think their version is the truth, because that's the way they lived the events, with their own culture and education telling them what is right and wrong.
Themes and Interpretations
"Educated" explores several important themes, including:
- The Power of Education: The book highlights the transformative potential of education to broaden one's perspective, challenge ingrained beliefs, and create opportunities for personal growth. The book title is about education and how being educated can change your life.
- Family Loyalty vs. Self-Preservation: Tara's struggle to reconcile her love for her family with her need to break free from their harmful beliefs and behaviors is a central conflict in the memoir. I was losing my family, and it seemed to me that there were no stories for that - no stories about what to do when loyalty to your family was somehow in conflict with loyalty to yourself.
- The Nature of Truth and Memory: The book raises questions about the reliability of memory and the subjective nature of truth, particularly in the context of family relationships. She does not claim to have the perfect truth, she claims to have her truth.
- Abuse and Trauma: "Educated" sheds light on the devastating effects of abuse and trauma, both physical and emotional, and the challenges of healing and recovery. It is about how a girl being physically and psychologically abused by her brother and her parents by not being supported on that very aspect still manages to have a "normal" life afterwards.
Some critics have interpreted "Educated" as a commentary on the dangers of religious fundamentalism and the importance of critical thinking.
Fundamentalism occurs throughout many major religions.
Others have focused on the book's exploration of class and privilege, noting the challenges faced by individuals from marginalized backgrounds in accessing education and upward mobility.
Stories such as Westover’s remind us of the privilege of education, and opportunities, and the real meaning of diversity. It is also ironically about understanding how a small subset of those controlling media outlets hardly shows the full picture of what it means to be an American. The story of the Westovers is just one of many who lived through a recession, in economic hardship, with limited education, and mental illness.
Shawn Westover's Character
Shawn Westover is the fictitious name Tara Westover gives to one of her brothers in her memoir Educated.
Tara soon had her own firsthand experience with Shawn’s volatility when he, without warning, put his hands around her head and violently twisted it-to help pop her neck back into place following the accident, or so he claimed. This harsh “treatment” actually did help: Tara could once again pivot her neck. But his non-consensual laying of hands on Tara foreshadowed what was to come between the two siblings. Tara would spend much of the rest of her time on Buck’s Peak subject to Shawn’s displays of kindness, which were all too often followed by displays of terrifying cruelty and violence.
Shortly after Shawn Westover came back home, he invited Tara to come along with him on a long-haul trucking job down the West Coast. Tara agreed, excited by the possibility of travel and the opportunity to spend time with this mysterious older brother about whom she knew so little.
But Tara was still enjoying the time with her brother. She recalls passing the time with him by playing elaborate word games, learning trucker lingo, eating junk food, and playing video games-all new experiences for her. The undercurrent of violence was there, but had not yet fully surfaced. Shawn was the only one who could stand up to Gene on a consistent basis-and win.
Tara turned 15 in September 2001. She was now fully in puberty, which brought increased attention to her body and new efforts by the men in her life to control her sexuality. She recalls her body changing at this time as she reached sexual maturity. Most of all, the full weight of her family’s highly patriarchal and often misogynistic views on women, marriage, and sexuality soon began to press upon Tara.
Tara had long convinced herself that Shawn’s violence was her fault-that if she’d just asked Shawn to stop in the right way, he would have. This night, however, she wrote about the experience in her diary plainly and honestly, without resorting to vague or euphemistic language. It was one of her first steps toward recognizing what Shawn truly was-and recognizing, also, how her family had implicitly condoned his abuse.
Years later, as a survivor, Tara would understand why she had come to believe that Shawn’s emotional manipulation had all been her fault. She saw that it was more comforting to accept the abuse as stemming from a flaw in herself, rather than in him-because if it was her defect, she would at least be able to control it. She was displaying a common symptom of abuse victims, that of sympathizing with their abuser or rationalizing away the abuse they suffer.
tags: #shawn #westover #education #and #career
