Educated --- #1 Book Review and the Sociological Imagination

Yvonne Lian, 2020

‘Educated’ is a touching memoir written by Tara Westover. The book described her experience of growing up in a fundamentalist mormon family and the intrinsic conflict she faced with two paradoxical world views after her tough struggle to pursue a higher education. Born into a suburban Idaho family with 6 older siblings, Tara did not obtain a birth certificate until 9 because of her father Gene’s upmost distrust toward the government, whose profound paranoia is later suspected to be a symptom of bipolar disorder. His beliefs, aggregated by the Ruby Ridge incident, restrict the family from government facilities, such as public education or hospitals. For the first 16 years of her life, Tara Westover sees the world through the lens of her father. Yet these fundamental principles were quickly and drastically challenged after she went to BYU through self-learning algebra. Her ideas of being of women, which was confined to being a good wife and a righteous mother were tested. This made her reflect on the physical and emotional abuse she experienced from her older brother, Shawn, in the name of love. Her mother’s practices, such as midwifery and essential oil making, were encouraged by her father in order to become self-sufficient. Many sociological factors plays a role in the story. The three most important socializing agents — religion, family, and education — uphold the structure in the memoir.

Religion is the overarching socializing agent in the book. Gene’s interpretation of the discipline regulates the family’s thinking outward and their behaviors inward. In Bucks’s Peak, Idaho, where the Westover family resides, Mormon adherence rate is 90% in 2010. Mormon Church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was originated in the United States by their founding father Joseph Smith. It stems from the Christian Restoration movement in the later part of the 19th century, and has become one of the fastest-growing religion in the modern era. In the Mormon religion, there are three levels of heaven: celestial, terrestrial, and telestial. Only those who are the most pious and devoted will transcend to the highest celestial kingdom that live in God’s presence. It, however, has a complicated relationship with race. Mormonism endorses the concept of whiteness as godliness and purity, and prior to the 1970s, people of color were restricted from participating in any important religious rituals.

Similarly, white supremacy is another embedded sociological factor in the memoir. One of the key stories described in the memoir is the Ruby Ridge incident. Ruby Ridge is the location where the standoff between FBI and the apocalyptic fundamentalist Weaver family happened in 1992. The Weaver family was thought to have ties with the white supremacist Aryan Nation group and were known for their distrust towards the government. The dog, their son, and Randy Weaver’s wife were shot during an 11 day siege based on firearm violation charges. However, this infamous episode had a huge toll on the Westover family. As Tara stated in an interview with NPR, the Westovers imagined that this incident could have happened to their family at any moment because “as far as I knew, that family was my family.” The family thought that their common distrust towards their government and their wish to stay off the grid would make them the next target. These beliefs, further aggregated by their father’s paranoia, led the family members to avoid government facilities, such as schools or hospitals, and also try to become self-sufficient, such as making the mother a midwife. Together, the apocalyptic theory and anti-government conviction led to the family’s cultural detachment with the society and the source of struggle for Tara Westover when she decides to become ‘’educated.’

Family is another important socializing agent in the book. One of the most important Mormon doctrine related to the book is their view on gender, which determines the gender roles each family member should fit into. They believe that living righteously—to perform in accordance to their gender roles—determines their integrity and their access to the celestial Heaven. Therefore, the head of the family should be the father who becomes the bread-winner; the mother should take care of the prosperous family and managed the chores within the household. The children, especially the girls are supposed follow their parent’s path and be a ‘good’ Mormon who do not taunt their sexuality. Indeed, one of the strongest social institutions that create and justify hierarchical values is religion. The aforementioned stereotypical gender roles are the product of the patriarchal view, which prioritizes men over women. A study on society and gender belief demonstrates that higher levels of religiosity were strongly associated with holding more patriarchal attitudes (Bouma, 2019). Indeed, according to a survey by the PEW research center, 81% of mormons consider being a good parent one of the most important thing in life, and 73% to having a successful marriage, as compared to 50% and 34% amongst the U.S. general public, respectively. The Westovers live in a culture that emphasizes marriage and motherhood as high priorities for women.

Accordingly, Johnson mentioned in the theoretical piece that systems as well as personalities account for the inequivalent sexism women endure, including abuse. One of the structures is benevolent sexism, which is the notion that women are righteous and virtuous and are therefore morally superior to men. However, when a women deviates from the conventional path and break the gender hierarchy, they are treated with hostility and require punishment. Correspondingly, WHO’s data suggest that one in three women throughout the world will experience physical and/or sexual violence by a partner or sexual violence by a non-partner illustrates the widespread violence against women. Undoubtedly, in the patriarchal society that we live in today, domination, control, and violence are desired masculinity traits that are desirable. In the memoir, Tara detailed the abusive she suffered from her brother Shawn, who argued that he was just policing and protecting her sister from becoming sinful, i.e. demonstrating her attractiveness to men. When she further deviates from the path of least resistance after going to college she faced continuous back-lash from her family.

Getting an education is a theme that is explored throughout the memoir. Instead of receiving a formal education at school, Tara Westover grew up studying the Bible and working alongside her brothers in her father’s scrap yard. Therefore, education is another important socializing agent presented in the book. The number of home-schooling children has grown by 29% from 1999 to 2003 (NHES, 2003). Amongst the reasons for homeschooling are concern about environment of other schools, to provide religious or moral instructions, or dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools. This coincides with Tara’s father notion that the American government uses public schools to “brainwash” children, and therefore refuse to send his younger kids to school. Moreover, the state of Idaho, where the author’s family resides, does not regulate nor monitor homeschool education, but instead just require a ‘comparable’ education. Yet with little supervision, parents, such as the Westover’s, decides fully the kind of education their children will receive. As Tara pursues a higher education outside at the age of 16 when she finally sets foot in a classroom, she started to gain a more comprehensive view on her identity as a woman, a learner, and her relationship with her family. Overwhelmed and constantly challenged, Tara, however, slowly gained the critical and analytical tool needed to distance herself from her family of origin and learned to differentiate right from wrong. Furthermore, she came to the epiphany that education is a life-long endeavor that encompass how one sees and responses to the world around them.

All the socializing agents in the book simultaneously operate and interact with each other, tangles and intertwines, creating the structure that forms the basis of a sorrowful yet up-lifting story of a young women.

'Educated' is a touching memoir written by Tara Westover. The book described her experience of growing up in a fundamentalist Mormon family and the intrinsic conflict she faced with two paradoxical world views after her tough struggle to pursue higher education. Born into a suburban Idaho family with six older siblings, Tara did not obtain a birth certificate until nine because of her father Gene's utmost distrust toward the government, whose profound paranoia is later suspected to be a symptom of bipolar disorder. His beliefs, aggregated by the Ruby Ridge incident, restrict the family from government facilities, such as public education or hospitals. For the first 16 years of her life, Westover views the world through the lens of her father. Yet these fundamental principles were quickly and drastically challenged after she went to BYU through self-learning algebra. Her ideas of being of women, which was confined to being a good wife and a righteous mother, were tested. This made her reflect on the physical and emotional abuse she experienced from her older brother, Shawn, in the name of love. Her mother's practices, such as midwifery and essential oil making, were encouraged by her father to become self-sufficient. Many sociological factors play a role in the story. The three most important socializing agents — religion, family, and education — uphold the structure in the memoir.

Religion is the overarching socializing agent in the book. Gene's interpretation of the discipline regulates the family's thinking outward and their behaviors inward. In Bucks's Peak, Idaho, where the Westover family resides, the Mormon adherence rate was 90% in 2010. Mormon Church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was originated in the United States by their founding father, Joseph Smith. It stems from the Christian Restoration movement in the latter part of the 19th century and has become one of the fastest-growing religions in the modern era. In the Mormon religion, there are three levels of heaven: celestial, terrestrial, and telestial. Only those who are the most pious and devoted will transcend to the highest celestial kingdom that lives in God's presence. It, however, has a complicated relationship with race. Mormonism endorses the concept of whiteness as godliness and purity, and prior to the 1970s, people of color were restricted from participating in any important religious rituals.

Similarly, white supremacy is another embedded sociological factor in the memoir. One of the key stories described in the memoir is the Ruby Ridge incident. Ruby Ridge is the location where the standoff between the FBI and the apocalyptic fundamentalist Weaver family happened in 1992. The Weaver family was thought to have ties with the white supremacist Aryan Nation group and were known for their distrust towards the government. The dog, their son, and Randy Weaver's wife were shot during an 11-day siege based on firearm violation charges. However, this infamous episode had a significant toll on the Westover family. As Tara stated in an interview with NPR, the Westover's imagined that this incident could have happened to their family at any moment because "as far as I knew, that family was my family." The family thought that their common distrust towards their government and their wish to stay off the grid would make them the next target. These beliefs, further aggregated by their father's paranoia, led the family members to avoid government facilities, such as schools or hospitals, and also try to become self-sufficient, such as making the mother a midwife. Together, the apocalyptic theory and anti-government conviction led to the family's cultural detachment with the society and the source of struggle for Tara Westover when she decides to become "educated.'

Family is another crucial socializing agent in the book. One of the essential Mormon doctrines related to the book is their view on gender, which determines the gender roles each family member should fit. They believe that living righteously—to perform in accordance with their gender roles—determines their integrity and their access to the celestial heaven. Therefore, the head of the family should be the father who becomes the bread-winner; the mother should take care of the prosperous family and managed the chores within the household. The children, especially the girls, are supposed to follow their parent's path and be a 'good' Mormon who does not taunt their sexuality. Indeed, one of the most influential social institutions that create and justify hierarchical values is religion. The aforementioned stereotypical gender roles are the product of the patriarchal view, which prioritizes men over women. A study on society and gender belief demonstrates that higher levels of religiosity were strongly associated with holding more patriarchal attitudes (Bouma, 2019). Indeed, according to a survey by the PEW research center, 81% of Mormons consider being a good parent one of the most important thing in life, and 73% to having a successful marriage, as compared to 50% and 34% amongst the U.S. general public, respectively. The Westover's live in a culture that emphasizes marriage and motherhood as high priorities for women.

Accordingly, Johnson mentioned in the theoretical piece that systems, as well as personalities, account for the inequivalent sexism women endure, including abuse. One of the structures is benevolent sexism, which is the notion that women are righteous and virtuous and are therefore morally superior to men. However, when a women deviate from the conventional path and break the gender hierarchy, they are treated with hostility and require punishment. Correspondingly, WHO's data suggest that one in three women throughout the world will experience physical and/or sexual violence by a partner or sexual violence by a non-partner illustrates the widespread violence against women. Undoubtedly, in the patriarchal society that we live in today, domination, control, and violence are considered desirable masculinity traits. In the memoir, Tara detailed the abuse she suffered from her brother Shawn, who argued that he was just policing and protecting her sister from becoming sinful, i.e., demonstrating her attractiveness to men. When she further deviates from the path of least resistance after going to college, she faced continuous back-lash from her family.

Getting an education is a theme that is explored throughout the memoir. Instead of receiving formal education at school, Tara Westover grew up studying the Bible and working alongside her brothers in her father's scrapyard. Therefore, education is another relevant socializing agent presented in the book. The number of homeschooling children has grown by 29% from 1999 to 2003 (NHES, 2003). Amongst the reasons for homeschooling are concern about environment of other schools, to provide religious or moral instructions, or dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools. This coincides with Tara's father's notion that the American government uses public schools to "brainwash" children, and therefore refuse to send his younger kids to school. Moreover, the state of Idaho, where the author's family resides, does not regulate nor monitor homeschool education, but instead just require a 'comparable' education. Yet with little supervision, parents, such as the Westover's, decides entirely the kind of education their children will receive. As Tara pursues a higher education outside at the age of 16 when she finally sets foot in a classroom, she started to gain a more comprehensive view of her identity as a woman, a learner, and her relationship with her family. Overwhelmed and continuously challenged, Tara, however, slowly gained the critical and analytical tool needed to distance herself from her family of origin and learned to differentiate right from wrong. Furthermore, she came to the epiphany that education is a life-long endeavor that encompasses how one sees and responses to the world around them.

All the socializing agents in the book simultaneously operate and interact with each other, tangles and intertwines, creating the structure that forms the basis of a sorrowful yet uplifting story of a young woman.