Education has the power to change and challenge human identity. Opens up the mind, put into questions family realities and truth, and invites you to think. Think freely.
Tara Westover entered a classroom for the first time in her life at 17 and since then she went to Harvard and got a PhD at Cambridge. She grew up in a complicated family, that refused to use the doctor's services and harbored a very extreme conspirationist view of the world. (However they used email). She did not have a birth certificate until 9 and had a very limited knowledge about the outside world. She taught herself algebra and successfully passed the exams necessary to enroll to college and despite the self-doubts and family pressure, she did not give up learning and getting herself an education.
'Everything I had worked for, all my years of study had been to purchase for myself this one privilege: to see and experience more truth that those given to me by my father, and to use those truths to construct my own mind'. And what a long way she went, as education means more than going through a comprehensive bibliography, but reclaiming her own story, her own identity and system of thoughts which meant also conquering her fears and coping with the extremely aggressive behavior of one of her brothers. The world of her family, which was an extreme interpretation of Mormonism, was dictated by the moods and erratic behavior of her father, and the individually strong yet prone to denial mother, a self-made herbalist and midwife with a booming business in their hometown Idaho.
Building the reality she was deprived of, trying to cope with the permanent denial of the agressive behavior of her brother, 'Shawn' - a given name in the book -, the activation of family loyalties to reject the accusation of denial, the pressure Tara had to deal with were terrific and she almost collapsed under the psychological pressure. 'When life itself seems lunatic, who knows were madness lies?' An old world is broken into small little pieces and she shall start creating her new reality in order to cope with a world she doesn't know. This is the strength of education, to get you a freedom, but only after you were strong enough to break with the un-educated world.
At the beginning, I've found the first part of the book, relating Tara's life and childhood a bit too descriptive and way to fluffy, but actually it made sense in correlation with the second part, but at the end of the story the details make sense as they clarify at a great extent the 'educated' story covering her struggle to create her own narrative. What for me it was fascinated, was how those people survived in their world always ready for the end of times, suffering of burns and serious car accidents and never going to the doctor for a proper treatment, yet being able to survive.
Educated, by Tara Westover is a wise book about the devastating power of knowledge and its strength that it gives to courageous people. There is no other way back.
Rating: 4 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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