Educated is a memoir about a blindly religious Mormon family and a girl who strives for her education, and it is written by Tara Westover.  Through her own eyes and her journals, Tara illustrates the struggles she endured her entire life as she was cut off from society and raised to believe that the government was an evil force aiming to murder her whole family. As mentioned in the Book of Mormon, there will be an “end of days” that her family prepared frivolously for, buying guns, making endless cans of dried peaches, or trying to reproduce a whole society and Tara’s mum becomes a midwife for the cause. Due to his superstitious thoughts, her father, Gene, started to scraping in a local junkyard to raise money for the end of days, and as soon as Tara’s brothers were old enough to work, he employed them to work with him

The family was seemingly tranquil and close to perfection until Tara’s older brothers rebelled against their father’s vine-like grip on the real world. As Tyler, her third oldest brother, left for BYU to pursue his dreams of receiving proper education, it sparked in her to do the same. With her rebellious nature and thirst to learn, Tara embarked on a grinding schedule to uncover 15 years of lost knowledge in a matter of months and was accepted by BYU. During this time, she also tries to spend more time outside the house and takes up a part-time job so that she would not have to help her father with scraping. Seeing this change, her second eldest brother, Shawn, who previously suffered mental issues, loses his sanity, and starts accusing her of being a “wh*re, and an indecent woman” while continually beating her to express his anger. 

Tired, scared, and against her family and siblings' wishes, Tara headed to BYU for her education. At first, understanding this college seemed impossible as she tried aimlessly to grasp the new concepts of history she had never heard of, such as the Holocaust. Along with her academic worries, Tara became unable to pay rent for her apartment. Finally, swaying on the brink of bankruptcy, depression, late nights, and part-time jobs, her history professor came to the help and convinced her to apply for student loan to continue with her education. 

Tara became prolific at studying with the economic boost and was highly intrigued by history. Therefore, with the suggestion of her history professor, she applied and was accepted by the Gates Scholarship program in Cambridge. However, despite her glories and achievements in the real world, she fell further and further from the alternative world where her family lived. Upon returning to Bucks Peak (her home) one Christmas, she was tortured by older brother Shawn yet again. Still, with her newfound confidence and the support of her sister Audrey, Tara related the unjust events of her suffering to their parents. Her parents questioned Shawn about these acts and as he denied these happenings, he threatened to kill Tara with a knife if she did not take what she said back. Also being threatened by death, Audrey decided it was safer to side with Shawn and turn a blind eye to the sorrows of her sister. After being rejected by her family entirely, Tara returned to Cambridge in a state of disarray. 

After returning, she found it impossible to cope with the mental struggles of work and looming depression. She had often found herself waking up in the middle of the night screaming in the street below her apartment. However, through time, acceptance and help from her college professors, she finally left her family behind her and completed her education at Cambridge. Throughout these months, Tara finally felt that she belonged to the school and the society in a way she had never previously done, and because of this, she made lifelong friends and even found a boyfriend in the process.

At the end of her education in Cambridge, she went to Harvard for a Ph.D. with a research scholarship, and it was extremely emotional for her due to the humble background she came from and the atrocities she faced. From one world to the next, Tara Westover took the reins and transformed her own life, and through her words, “My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.” —Educated