How Tara Westover Pursued Her Dreams

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Educated (book) - Wikipedia
By Lukas Perdekamp


Recently I finished reading Educated by Tara Westover. This book was published in 2018 and is a memoir of Westover looking back into her past. It is from the point of view of the author in her twenties. Tara was born in rural Idaho into a family of radical mormons. Her parents were Faye and Gene which are pen names, but they were both very conservative. Westover’s father gathered scrap metal which he then sold and was scared of the government. Tara Westover was the youngest of seven and they were never allowed to attend school, get birth certificates, or receive medical attention. In this post I will discuss how Westover was still able to lead a successful life despite all of her setbacks.


When Tara Westover was young, her mother Faye worked as a midwife. Unfortunately when Tara was about 9 years old Faye suffered a brain injury in a car accident which was not treated. This led her to work mostly on creating herbal remedies. At the same time Westover’s brother distanced himself from the family when he announced he was going to college. This action forced Tara to help her dad in his scrap metal business. When she worked for her father she began to see the outside world more and believed she could get an education.


This book really shows how many people are never exposed to the options the world offers. Tara worked extremely hard to get out of her situation. She was also lucky that she was able to see the outside world. When Westover was seventeen she moved to Utah to pursue a college education. She had to work several jobs in addition to maintaining good grades so she could keep her scholarship.

Overall, this book shows a story that many people go through in the US although it can be related to due to different factors. We need to make sure that people can see the options that are available to them. This can be restricted by family, race, or the community you live in. Besides this important moral, Educated also is well written and I would recommend it to anyone.

Comments

  1. Zoya A.May 21, 2020 at 2:19 PM

    Nice blog post. I liked the explanation of the plot you gave, and enjoyed reading about Tara's backstory. I found it particularly interesting and for that reason I will probably check this book out. Great job!

    ReplyDelete

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