Educated: A Memoir Themes

Education

Although Tara never sets foot in a classroom until she is 17, she tells us that her true education, “the one that would matter,” begins when, as a 10-year-old, she spends hours struggling through Mormon history books in an attempt to feel closer to Tyler, who has just left for college. “The skill I was learning,” she notes, “was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand.” It is this skill that allows Tara to tutor herself in math in preparation for the ACT, to recover from the failing grades she receives at the beginning of her freshman year of college, and to expand her own worldview beyond the narrow confines her parents attempt to impose on her.

For Tara, being educated does not consist of simply knowing facts, but of knowing how to interpret and process difficult information with an open mind. It also consists of being able to unlearn beliefs and thought patterns that are harmful or outdated. Throughout the memoir, Tara’s parents and her brother Shawn constantly try to “educate” her in their religious and political views. In her journey toward independence, Tara often finds herself uncomfortably caught between this “education” and the one she receives in the classroom.

Memory

Memory is an important theme in many memoirs, and especially so in Educated. The book opens with Tara recounting a memory that she knows is false but nevertheless is her “strongest memory.” Throughout the memoir Tara frequently revisits old memories after learning new information that makes her see things in a new light. She also frequently represses, or tries to repress, painful memories as a coping mechanism.

Tara’s memory is important not only to Tara herself, but also to her family. Rather than face the fact that Shawn has serious issues, Tara’s parents ask her to reject her own experiences and accept their version of events, just as they have convinced Audrey to do. It is ultimately Tara’s refusal to renounce her memories that leads to the family schism. Because memory is such a complex and personal issue for Tara and her sense of identity, it is little wonder that she finds herself drawn to studying history, which could be defined as the collective memory of humankind. Just as Tara is able to understand her personal memories more deeply when she revisits them after having learned more about the world, historians seek out new or previously overlooked types of evidence that can help to to improve our understanding of the events of the past.

Familial abuse

Tara experiences several different types of abuse during her childhood and young adulthood. Some are obvious, notably Shawn’s violent assaults, which frequently leave Tara unconscious or with broken bones. Others are more ambiguous such as Gene’s tendency to pressure Tara into doing dangerous things, seemingly as a loyalty test, or both parents’ refusal to seek medical attention when their children are sick or injured.

Despite everything she has been through, Tara is emphatic that she still loves all her family members, even Shawn. Tara is hesitant to assign blame to any one member of the family; while she describes becoming very angry at Gene on a few occasions, she doesn’t ever seem to believe that he wants to hurt her. Similarly, she sees Shawn as a victim as much as he is an abuser. Ultimately she comes to understand that there is nothing she can do as an individual to fix the family dynamic and that the only person she can fully protect is herself.