Educated by Tara Westover Literary Analysis Essay Sample

Educated is a story of triumph over seemingly endless adversity. The book is about Tara Westover and her memories about her past from the perspective of her in her late twenties. Tara grew up as the youngest of seven children on a farm in rural Idaho. In my essay, I will explore the journey from her Mormon upbringing to her receiving a doctorate degree in Intellectual History from Trinity College, in Cambridge.   As we progress through the novel we find ourselves in the midst of a conflict between the individual and society. Tara uses this conflict between her contradicting desires, Beliefs and deeds with the strict religious doctrine imposed upon her by her father as she explores the society and culture that she grew up in.

As Tara matures from a child into adulthood we watch her desires evolve from following the status quo of her family into wanting to pursue an education and escape Idaho.   This is expressed in the following passage. “After that night, there was never a question of whether I would go or stay. It was as if we were living in the future, and I was already gone.” This sentiment marks the beginning of a pattern where she acts independently of her family and makes choices that contradict the values Tara’s father imposed on her. Tara utilizes this Simile to truly show the reader how Tara is feeling about the situation she was put in. Reflecting on the past tara realized she could not see the full impact of these thoughts she had. Her desire to leave was so evident that she felt as if she was already gone; Furthermore, this passage gave the reader a better understanding of the culture and society she lived in by expressing her thoughts on how she wanted to move forward from it. 

Whilst telling her story, Tara's beliefs of having her own pursuits and identity beyond the confines of her Mormon upbringing were demonstrated in her reflective journal entries. She forms personal beliefs that don’t coincide with the Mormon religious doctrine her father pushes on the family.   This is illustrated in the passage below:  

“My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.”

Moments after a traumatic event between Tara and her abusive brother Shawn, Tara sat on her bed and reflected on the events in her journal entries.  For the first time in her life, Tara wrote what actually occurred she didn’t use the vague or shadowy language she previously used, she wrote what she remembered.  We finally see tara thinking like her own person and not hiding her true thoughts due to the strict Religious Doctrine.  Tara finally changing her beliefs and the way she thought demonstrated how she evolved throughout the book.  In this metaphor, we can get an insightful idea of the way tara thought about herself before this revolutionary moment in her journal. Growing up in a culture where her thoughts were confined, even alone in the most private of places she couldn’t be her true self and honest with the world around her. 

When Tara reflected upon her childhood while attending Brigham Young University she came to realize that some of the rules her family imposed didn’t make sense in the modern world. This caused Tara to start taking action and doing more things on her own accord and she pushed away from the Mormon faith. This Is evidenced below when she decided to take penicillin to treat her illness.

“I thought of Mother, and of the many times, she’d told me that antibiotics poison the body…” “...I swallowed the pills.”

In these moments of suffering the penicillin symbolizes her rejection of her family’s values. By this point, Tara has been educated enough to understand that the idea of medicine being poisonous for you did not make sense and wanted to live like a modern woman.   As Tara is reaching adulthood she takes action, actions that contradict the social mores she grew up in. Pushing back against her Mormon faith this moment demonstrates to the reader that her increasing boldness and her willingness, to be honest with the woman she is becoming. This event is so significant to Tara that she goes on and tells her mother who uses herbalism to treat even the most severe of injuries. In the actions Tara does we see her go against the status quo. With something as simple as antibiotics which people in modern society take at almost every sign of illness is conceived as the complete opposite in the culture her family formed around her we have a better understanding of her life growing up. With Tara Westover’s Desires, Beliefs and Deeds that defied the status quo the author is able to make the reader better understand the culture and society that she grew up in. 

As a child, she had desires to escape the farm and defy her father’s strict Mormon teachings. With the newfound knowledge that she acquired at University she begins to grow up and form her own beliefs which made her reflect on, and question, her past. As Tara grows up she acts on her own free will and does things she would never have thought of doing when she was younger. These moments of Individual Vs. Society helped show how she overcame of hardship she went through to become the woman she is today.