Educated By Tara Westover: Character Analyzation, Development, And Evolution

Sophia Olsen

Mrs.Burton

College Composition 22-23

Summer Reading and Analyzation of Educated by Tara Westover

Character Analyzation, Development, and Evolution:

Dad and Grandma tend to not get along very well. They argue daily often about the kids. The text continues to express, “Grandma thought we should be in school and not, as she put it, ‘roaming the mountain like savages.’ Dad said public school was a ploy by the Government to lead children away from God, (Westover 5).”

Dad fears being dependent on the Government, places fear into the kids that ‘feds’ are against them.

Mother is first introduced- “Mother didn’t want to be a midwife. Midwifery had been Dad's idea, one of his schemes for self-reliance. There was nothing he hated more

“There’s a sense of sovereignty that comes from life on a mountain, a perception of privacy and isolation, even of dominion, (Westover 27).”

Allegory of ideas- The author begins to indicate the issue of mental illness and how it affected her, as well as her siblings, education. Along with the permanence of their interpersonal skills. Suggests that the significance of the memoir is not just the lack of receiving proper education, but the hardships she and her family experienced due to Dad’s mental illness.

Allusion/Irony-‘Grandma-Over-In- Town’ passes away. Leading the author to come to sudden realization that Grandma was the singular person who could have understood all she was going through. Such as how the paranoia was carving up her life. The author continues to write, “What was happening now had happened before. This was the second severing of mother and daughter. The tape was playing in a loop, (Westover 30).”

Theme- Tara’s quest for knowledge and self invention.

Motif- Living in secrecy and lies.

Motif- Disregarding your hardships and emotions.

Theme- Grief of severing close family ties.

Theme- Fierce family

Lies upon lies. Dad embedded fear into the family and normalized lying to those they loved most. Throughout the memoir Tara had been influenced to lie; hiding the truth and some of the family’s deepest secrets. Such as not experiencing a proper education, hiding Shawns violent abusive ways, to Luke experiencing a crucial injury in the junkyard. Tara was prompted to mislead others and bottle her emotions.

Tara chose to disregard her emotions caused by Shawn and Dad. Shawn emotionally and physically abused Tara, leaving her deeply scarred. Due to Tara’s damaged relationship with both Shawn and Dad, she fully convinced herself neither affected her.

Tara wanted to convince herself Shawn and Dad did not affect her, because she felt that severing those ties would hurt more than the emotional and physical abuse.

No matter how much Shawn hurt Tara time after time she continued to care and forgive. For instance, when Shawn crashed the motorcycle Tara advocated for him, and brought Shawn to the hospital.

By bringing Shawn to the hospital it revealed to us readers how much Tara continued to care for him. Due to the matter being the family practiced herbalism. Believing it was God's will to