What Tara Westover’s ‘Educated’ Says About America

Exposing the dark soul of a nation

At first glance, a memoir by a Gen X raised in a survivalist Mormon family on an isolated farm in Idaho may seem a rather niche story. And yet, that same story was an instant #1 New York Times best-seller, spent 132 consecutive weeks on The New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction Best Selling List, and has sold a total of more than eight million copies.

So, why is it that Westover’s story resonates so strongly with so many Americans?

The answer lies in the very meaning of the word “education” in contemporary America, as well as its conflicted relationship with religious fanaticism, a matter that is, surprisingly, all the more relevant in today’s America.

As a European citizen who moved to the United States at the age of 19 to attend college in New York City, I have seen education being extremely valued in this country (my annual tuition of $70,000 speaks for itself) and, at the same time, utterly devalued. How is that possible in a country where a single year of college is, in some cases, priced as high as $73,700?

Many have recently elucidated the concept of a “divided America”, and nowhere was this divide as painfully evident as in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

One of the two Americas is progressive, generally liberal in its political views, and “educated”¹ about its own history, about the rest of the world, and about facts. This latter element is especially important, because facts are notions that are substantiated by tangible evidence, empirical data, and science. This concept clashes with that of “alternative facts”, which has become increasingly popular in the last few years. “Alternative facts” indicate, among other things: unsubstantiated theories, conspiracies, speculation, superstitions, and, in some cases, full-blown fantasies. Mind you: this is not the case for America alone.²

Facts are notions that are substantiated by tangible evidence, empirical data, and science. This concept clashes with that of “alternative facts”, which has become increasingly popular in the last few years.

The second America is defined by its stubborn belief in alternative facts, as well as generally conservative views in regard to politics and society, strong religious beliefs, and, usually, a lack of solid education in a variety of subjects, ranging from basic notions of geography to American and World History.

One of these two Americas played a paramount role in placing the now federally indicted tycoon Donald Trump in the White House. The other one fought and keeps fighting back in whatever (peaceful) way they can. One America believes in the value of education, which is, essentially, the value of understanding the external world as well as those who inhabit it. They believe in knowledge as an entity that’s constantly changing and growing richer. The other America tends to believe in fixed assumptions, mistrusts science in favor of centuries-old religious tenets, and does not generally value education.

Tara Westover’s family is a primary, albeit rather extreme, example of this: Westover’s father, a deeply religious Mormon, strongly opposed the idea of sending his kids to school, and mistrusted doctors and science to the point of denying his family members basic healthcare needs, including after his wife sustained a serious head injury, and even after one of his kids literally caught fire and was nearly burned alive. The man’s religious fervor and paranoid delusions, which, as described in the book, seem to border on schizophrenia, endanger his family and keep them in complete isolation from the rest of the world, not much unlike Yorgos Lanthimos’ disturbing 2009 film Dogtooth.

As I was reading through Westover’s account on how, for almost twenty years, she was afraid of going to doctors and taking any sort of medications because she had been taught that doctors were “evil socialists” and that pills “caused infertility and birth defects”, I was reminded of “anti-vaxxers” in the age of Covid-19, of people who refused to wear masks — such as former US President Donald Trump — because they didn’t believe Covid was real, just like they didn’t believe that climate change was real; of people who wouldn’t trust vaccines and the medical establishment behind them on account that “they didn’t know what was in them” or that “psychotropic substances were being put into them in order to control people’s minds”.³

And while Westover grew up in 1990s America, the events I just mentioned are all recent, having emerged well over 20 years after the events that Westover describes.

Similarly, Westover’s account of how her family attempted to gaslight her into believing that the many physical abuses she had suffered at the hands of her brother Shawn had never happened is disturbingly reminiscent of another form of “alternative facts”: that, which denies the very idea that abuse took place and, instead, offers an “alternative truth” or “alternative reality”. In Westover’s story, the gaslighting is so powerful and omnipresent, coming from all sides of her family — her father, mother, siblings, etc. — that Westover begins to question her own mental sanity as a result of it, asking herself whether or not the abuses actually did take place. And when Westover finally stands up for herself, defending her own truth — the truth — her family goes as far as to call their daughter possessed and to ostracize her from the rest of the family.

This particular turn of events offers us not only a look at the emergence of alternative facts, but also at recent social phenomena such as the #metoo movement, which gave a voice to thousands of victims of abuse, who had previously been silenced and, even worse than that, shamed into silence, led to believe that their perception of events was erroneous, having to question whether or not they were responsible for the abuse they had suffered. Thus, Westover’s patriarchal family becomes a miniature of patriarchal America, truthfully depicting the way in which the weakest are silenced and oppressed in favor of the powerful.

As a twenty-seven-year-old reading Westover’s memoir in 2023, her story did not feel as distant in time as it should feel. Instead, it felt present and real. Her America was the same America I had seen and experienced since moving there in 2016. Yes, 2016. Exactly 30 years after Tara Westover was born.

The reason why Westover’s story rings so true and powerful to millions of Americans is because it is not a niche story, it’s an all-too-common, terrifyingly contemporary portrayal of America’s dark soul, the one poisoned by ignorance and fanaticism. The one that is regularly exploited by much more powerful people to form a solid platform upon which to build consent and support for personal agendas. The one that keeps festering the more ignorance one feeds to it.

Westover’s story dissects the dark side of America, and it offers the rest of us — unknowing, bewildered spectators — an inside look into its roots and causes. It exposes the festering wound of America’s lack of education. It is a testament to the dark soul of a nation.

¹ Please understand that I’m using the term “educated” in a relative way. There are many different types of education, and some are definitely more comprehensive than others. Receiving a “formal education” is not unequivocally synonymous with “being educated”. To give you a rather painful example of this, I recently stumbled across a 30-something American college graduate who described herself as “a highly educated woman”. Upon seeing a Ukrainian flag, that same woman proceeded to look at it rather confused, before asking “which country’s flag it was”. This happened one or two weeks ago, after more than a year since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian War.

² In light of the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian War, a vast portion of the Russian population has also chosen to embrace alternative facts in favor of hard evidence.

³ I stumbled across this specific “pearl” in an Instagram post by a Russian supporter of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine who was raging against “the West” and its many evils, including the Covid vaccine.

Martine Nyx is a filmmaker, writer, and educator. She was born and raised in Europe, and moved to the United States at the age of 19. She spent six years living and studying in the US, before moving to Canada in 2022. She is currently based in Toronto, Ontario.

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