Educated, by Tara Westover

 

Westover Family

Others

Gene Westover – father Faye Westover – mother, herbalist, midwife Tony – oldest, drove trucks Tyler – PhD, wife Stefanie Shawn – wife Emily, son Peter Luke – learning disability Audrey Richard – PhD in chemistry Tara – youngest   Grandma-down-the-hill – paternal grandmother   Grandma and Grandpa-over-in-town – maternal grandparents   Aunt Angie – Faye’s sister Aunt Debbie – Faye’s sister, helped Tara get passport

Judy - midwife   Charles – Tara’s first friend from outside world   Church Bishop at BYU   Nick (real name) – boyfriend, broke up with him after Shawn and Emily’s wedding   Roommates 2nd semester BYU: Robin – helpful to Tara Jenni   Dr. Kerry – professor of Jewish history at BYU, helped Tara get into Cambridge   Dr. Jonathan Steinberg – research advisor at Cambridge

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardcopy edition of the book.

1. Why did Tara’s parents continually take Shawn’s side and not believe what Tara was telling them about his actions?  Did they really understand what he was doing to both Audrey and then Tara?
2. What was different about Tara that she was able to get away but Audrey was not?
3. Shawn often referred to Tara as “Our N*****” (page 179).   After she had taken an American history course and understood the derogatory meaning of this term, she asked Shawn not to call her that any more.   She wrote, “The word and the way Shawn said it hadn’t changed, only my ears were different” (pages 180-181).  What did this mean in Tara’s education?  Do you think Shawn knew the history of the word? 
4. How was Shawn able to have so much power over Tara?  On page 199 she wrote, “He had defined me to myself, and there’s no greater power than that.”
5. What did you think about Shawn?  In the book, the first signs of his aggression were on page 100 when he baited the younger boys at Tara’s rehearsals, then tormented Sadie (page 109).  This escalated to full blown physical abuse of Tara, yet at one point he protected Tara from the Shear (page 140) and was the only one to stand up to the father (page 142).
6. One turning point was when Shawn had the motor cycle accident and Tara made the decision to take him to the hospital instead of home to be cared for by their mother.  She felt that after that night her father wanted her to leave.  Her reaction was to think that, “…I am not a good daughter.  I am a traitor…I am not sorry; merely ashamed” (page 147-8).  Why did she feel this way?
7. When Tara was still living at home and after Tyler left, she put his desk in her room and read all the books in the house she could not understand.  She wrote, “The skill I learned was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand” (page 62).  How was this crucial later?  Would you have the same patience?
8. What did you think about Tara’s experiences when she went to college?  How was she able to persevere and succeed despite all the emotional changes she experienced including panic attacks (chapter 37)?
9. When meeting with her advisor at Cambridge, Dr. Steinberg, she wrote, “I could tolerate any form of cruelty better than kindness.  Praise was poison to me” (page 240).  Why did Tara have difficulty accepting praise about her writing?
10. Discuss the role of counseling in her success.  Would it have worked earlier in her journey?
11. Nick was Tara’s boyfriend at BYU and she broke up with him a week after Shawn and Emily’s wedding without any explanation (page 227).   She wrote, “But the peak refused to give me up…The remembered world was somehow more vivid than the physical world I inhabited, and I phased between them” (page 226).  Why couldn’t she talk with Nick?  He was one of the few people identified by his real name.  How do you think he felt reading this book?
12. Given the success of Faye’s business selling Miracle Salve and other essential oils, did you understand their thinking that every bad thing was leading up to this financial success?  (page 231)
13. As time progressed, Faye got stronger.  But at the end of the book she refused to see Tara unless she would also see her father.  Why?
14. What would Faye have been if she had married someone else?
15. Discuss the role of mental illness in the story.  At one point, after Tara had been living away from the family for quite a while, Faye referred to Gene’s bipolar and “the damage his bipolar has caused to our family” (page 271).  Also, Shawn was obviously mentally ill.  On page 121 Tara wrote, “…I understood the truth of it: that Shawn hated himself far more than I ever could.”   Was there anything that could have been done for both Gene and Shawn?
16. Articles on the internet referring to interviews by her family members deny some of these events.  Who can we believe?