The journey of Tara Westover from isolation to education and self-discovery

Introduction to the memoir

"Educated: A Memoir" is the first novel written by the American author Tara Westover. The author was born in Idaho in 1986 and this novel contains many autobiographical hints, indeed, it can be considered her fictionalized biography.

"Educated: A Memoir" is the touching and profound story of a woman (the author), with a violent and bipolar father, slave of the Mormons, with enormous difficulties of survival to abstruse and logical beliefs and myths.

Life under the mountain

The protagonist lives under the mountain, called "the princess", which is their point of reference and protection. Their world is born and ends there, waiting for the end of the world, around the years 2000. Here only the messages of God and what Gene, the father, preaches.
Tara and her six brothers do not go to school, they do not go to the doctor, they do not get vaccinated, they do not exist for the registry office.

Respect the word of the Lord and expect the spectacular end: the father Gene dictates the rules and instructs the children, the mother is the midwife, cure through herbal teas and infusions. Everything that happens in the outside world is evil, it is a representation of the devil. Children are taught by their mother to read and write; but only for the purpose of reading and learning the Holy Scriptures and counting for survival.

Tara's escape and education

At age seventeen, Tara flees from this fundamentalist family and decides to study. He goes to the University, he graduates, he obtains a doctorate. From the family she is repudiated, they call her and consider her "a whore".
Its rebirth passes through a process of growth, of acquiring one's own self and one's personality, not without fatigue or pain. A courageous story, intimate and intimate, a deep and intense rebirth that strikes and fascinates in the depths. A memoir with a strong narrative impact and a solid construct.