Educated Essay Questions

How does the geography of Buck's Peak affect Tara's feelings towards home?

Throughout the memoir, Buck's Peak is personified as a dynamic, human-like character. For the Westover family, Buck's Peak is not just where they live. Rather, this part of the mountain represents their entire world. Tara often discusses "The Indian Princess," an image that solely becomes visible in the summer months and comes to represent the passage of time. Each time Tara returns to Buck's Peak from BYU, she feels "haunted" by the princess. This feeling refers to her family's curated, insular, and manipulative environment. Whenever Tara returns, she experiences the troubling sensation of magnetically being pulled back into her old life.

How does Tyler's leaving impact Tara?

Before Tyler leaves home, Tara believes that the only way to escape Buck's Peak is to get married and move to another neighboring community with her husband. Tyler's enrollment at BYU indicates his true emancipation and independence. Tara sees that the traditional family cycle can be broken. Tyler inspires Tara to spend more time at her maternal grandmother's house in order to receive a different life perspective. In addition, Tara is motivated to study for the ACT so that she can also go to BYU.

What is the significance of the phrase "fish eyes" in the memoir?

Shawn uses the concept of "fish eyes" to describe how he sees his first girlfriend, Sadie. This backhanded compliment first reveals Shawn's abusive and controlling behavior with women, a subject that recurs throughout the memoir. The compliment causes Sadie to feel special and attended-to, but in reality Shawn is degrading and insulting the women in his life. This symbolizes Shawn's manipulative sadistic tendencies.

Throughout the memoir, Tara refers to the journals she kept during her adolescence. What is the significance of these journals?

As a genre, the memoir is a “collection of memories that an individual writes about moments or events, both public and private, that took place in the subject’s life.” However, Tara's traumatic history has caused her to feel self-conscious about her memories of the past. For Tara, the journals represent proof and validity; she has actually experienced what she remembers. In addition, journaling contributes to the memoir's theme of art as a means of escape. In documenting her life's story, Tara feels a much-needed sense of agency, authorship, and control.

Why does Professor Steinberg compare Tara's life story to that of Pygmalion?

While at Cambridge, Tara succumbs to negative feelings and is overcome by a sense of self-loathing. Professor Steinberg notices Tara’s deprecating attitude, and he draws a comparison between Tara and Eliza Doolittle. Professor Steinberg asserts that Eliza Doolittle had to radically accept herself in order to understand her individuality and her value. Professor Steinberg encourages Tara to embrace the circumstances of her upbringing and consider it essential for shaping her into the scholar and historian that she is today.