February 2018 saw the publication of the incredible autobiographical memoir, Educated by
Tara Westover. A gripping and inspiring story, Westover invites the reader to explore the
journey of her unconventional childhood, abundant with obstacles, enduring abusive
relationships and, above all, pursuing a desire to receive an education.
Educated tells the story of Westover’s journey from her isolated home in rural Idaho under
the control of her parents, who were fundamentalist Mormons, to her search for education,
graduating from Brigham Young University (BYU), and eventually receiving a PhD from
Cambridge University. The memoir was ranked by the New York Times as one of the best
books of 2018, and Westover herself was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most
influential people of 2019.
Joseph Smith founded the Mormon religion, also known as the Church of Latter-Day Saints,
in 1830 in the United States. The introduction of the religion was marked with the publication
of the Book of Mormon in 1830, by Smith, which he claimed he received in religious
experience. In her memoir, Westover recalls how she was taught to be literate by her parents
for the sole purpose of reading religious texts, in particular the Book of Mormon.
Westwood grew up on a mountainside in rural Idaho as one of seven children. Her domestic
environment was extremely unconventional and foreign to most Americans.
Unlike other children her age who attended school, wore modern clothing, and regularly
visited the doctor, Westwood was subjected to a childhood that was extremely isolated from
the conventional American lifestyle. Westwood’s father, with whom she recounts her abusive
and controlling relationship with, was opposed to many conventional aspects of American
life – doctors, hospitals, and most notably, education, believing that the American educational
system was corrupt and only distracted children from following the word of God.
Westwood, as a result of her parents’ radical beliefs, did not have a birth certificate until she
was nine years old. Westwood describes, from the viewpoint of her naïve and unknowingly
ignorant self as a child, how the majority of her days would be spent in her father’s junkyard,
working, playing, and preparing for the ‘End of Days’, the day which Mormons believed
would bring Christ’s return.
Westwood unapologetically and unequivocally rehashes her experiences with her abusive
older brother, who would relentlessly brand her a ‘whore’ for befriending a local boy, as well
as physically attacking her. At the age of sixteen, Tara decided to seek an education for
herself and escape the tightly bound restraints of her radically Mormon family. She passed
her university exams for which she trained herself from her home and secured a place at
BYU. However, receiving an education posed a deeper threat for Tara, highlighted in
arguably the most pivotal part of the book, where readers become inspired by her drive for
success. Once at university, Westwood became overwhelmed by culture shock, and, on
numerous occasions, was tempted to retreat to the familiarity of her old life in Idaho. A
notable moment in Westwood’s recollection of her time at university encapsulates the extent
to which she had been sheltered during her childhood. In one of her first university classes,
Westwood recalls how, out of pure curiosity, she put her hand up and asked what the
Holocaust was, understandably to the horror of her classmates. However, as Westwood
persisted with her degree and learns to assimilate into the culture and customs of modern
America, she began to learn of the existence of mental illnesses, which she previously had
little knowledge about whatsoever. Westwood describes this as a turning point in her
educational and personal life, as the symptoms of Bipolar Syndrome began to resonate with
the actions of her father. Once Westwood made the connection between this mental illness
and her father, she was able to comfortably transgress into the modern world, keeping her life
in rural Idaho separate from her education.
Not only does Educated describe the inspirational story of a young girls’ determination to
succeed and offer a heart-warming presentation of a woman’s journey into adulthood, but, as
Bill Gates notes, it also “touches on a number of the divides in our country [America]: red
states versus blue states, rural versus urban, college-educated versus not.” Westwood
eventually graduated from BYU, went on to earn a PhD in History from the University of
Cambridge in 2014, and continues to inspire people of all backgrounds and abilities to strive
for success.
INTERVIEW
Westover was raised by Mormon survivalist parents who distrusted public education and
health, and did not set foot in a classroom until she was 17. Despite studying independently
for the ACT and subsequently gaining entrance to Brigham Young University (Utah),
Westover quickly became aware of how insubstantial her homeschooling had been.
“The only history I learned was my father’s,” she said. “I didn’t even know what the
Holocaust was.”
Westover acknowledged that although her unique upbringing made her stand out among her
peers, her differences have never bothered her.
“I spent my whole life not fitting in,” Westover said. “I’m OK now with not fitting in. I’ve
accepted that conformity is an illusion. … You don’t have to be like everybody else.”
Another byproduct of Westover’s idiosyncratic childhood was the perspective she gained on
what it means to be “educated” — something she wanted to convey through the ambiguity of
her book’s title.
“[Educated] can mean informed, fearless, intelligent, arrogant, brainwashed,” she said. “Part
of the way that I would define education was getting access to other points of view.”
Westover emphasized the importance of appreciating and accepting other perspectives,
noting that “two people can have the same experience and come to different conclusions.”
“I think that respecting people that you disagree with is a prerequisite to self-respect,” she
said.
Nevertheless, Westover voiced her concerns that education was beginning to associate more
with certainty than inquiry, which she believes has bled into how we perceive others.
“We’ve kind of gotten into a social space where we think if we know one thing about a
person, we know everything,” she said.
Westover stated that she was inspired to write about her life as a way to cope with her gradual
estrangement from her parents, a process she described as “difficult and long.”
“When I went through that process, I just felt like I was the only person it had ever happened
to, and I thought it might be helpful for other people to read about it,” she said.
Westover’s described her writing process in “Educated” was like journaling, which she said
helped her cope with the changes in her life. She argued that journaling was more therapeutic
than the act of writing for readers and encouraged the audience to consider it.
“There’s something in writing that I think is therapeutic,” Westover said. “But then I also
think that when you write for people, it’s not really as therapeutic because there are different
rules.”
Westover also revealed that there are aspects of her life that she deliberately omitted from her
memoir for fear that they would be poorly received, and pointed to the vast cultural
differences between rural and urban America.
“There are some things I could have written about my father that would have been too
shocking, and they would not have been received in context,” she said.
One potentially controversial passage that Westover did keep in the memoir featured the
repeated use of the N-word. Westover included the story in the memoir to highlight her
conscious evolution, tying into the larger theme of what it means to be “Educated.”
“I wanted to write a story about language and the power of it,” Westover said. “For so long I
just heard [the N-word] as any other word, and then I was awakened to how powerful it was.
I didn’t want to blunt the power of it by representing it in any way less than it was.”
Westover acknowledged that it was a difficult choice, one that still gives her food for
thought.
“I rethink it all the time,” she confessed. “Maybe I made the wrong decision.”
Concluding the discussion, Westover revealed that she would not offer any advice to her
younger self.
“There are things you have to learn that nobody can tell you,” Westover said.