Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Educated, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory, History, and Subjectivity
Learning and Education
Devoutness and Delusion
Family, Abuse, and Entrapment
Summary
Analysis
In September, Tara arrives at Harvard. Hoping for a new beginning, she throws herself into her studies and new hobbies to distract herself from the pain of the last year. Her past keeps catching up with her, however—Mother writes to tell her that she and Dad will be coming out to Harvard to visit, and want to stay in Tara’s dorm with her. She also receives an instant message from her old friend Charles, and they briefly catch up. When she tells him that she’s still struggling with her family and trying to make them see the truth about Shawn, Charles suggests she “let them go,” but Tara says she can’t. Charles tells Tara she sounds the same as she did when they were teenagers.
Even when Tara hopes to start over, have new experiences, and throw herself into a different way of living, her past manages to entrap and ensnare her. The exchange with Charles warns Tara that she can’t outrun the things she hasn’t truly confronted or healed from—as long as she avoids doing the hard thing, she’ll always stay the same no matter where she moves or studies.
Themes
As the leaves begin to turn, Tara’s parents arrive at Harvard. They all sleep in Tara’s dorm room together, and she can hear Mom and Dad whispering late at night about how to “reconvert” her. Tara considers whether she’d be willing to accept an “exorcism” and be reborn, erasing all the trouble she’s caused in the last year and blaming it on Lucifer. If she “swap[s her] memories for theirs,” she can have her family back.
Dad wants to visit a sacred forest grove in upstate New York, a spot where God had appeared to Joseph Smith according to Mormon doctrine. At the temple there, Dad commands Tara to touch the walls and be cleansed. She does so, but feels nothing. Dad begins “testifying” for two whole hours, declaring that Tara has been “taken by Lucifer.” During the entire rambling speech, Mother says nothing.
Dad’s long-winded speeches are nothing new—but the fact that Tara’s parents have followed her all the way to the East Coast and are attempting to interfere with her new life by dragging her back into their warped worldview is more haunting, in a way, than anything else that’s come before.
Themes
Tara’s parents return with her to Harvard and stay there for a week, refusing to move to a hotel. On their final night, Dad tries to offer Tara a “blessing” and welcome her back into his fold. Tara refuses his offer. Dad tries to explain to Tara that everything terrible that has happened to their family has been God’s will—they have been chosen to be made “living testament[s] of God’s power.” Mother speaks up, claiming that through muscle-testing and energy work, she has diagnosed—and cured—her own breast cancer. Dad tells Tara that something awful is coming for her, and offers her his blessing one last time. Tara rejects him once again, and Dad declares that Tara’s room is filled with an “evil presence.” Though their flight is not until the morning, Mother and Dad pack their things and leave for the airport.
Tara is being offered the chance to do exactly what it is she thought she wanted—give up her opinions, her life, and her education, and return to the fold of her family. At the moment of truth, though, she refuses to give up what she’s worked for, and chooses to sacrifice her family instead. Tara’s visit with her parents has shown her that no matter what she does, she’ll never be good or pure enough in their eyes—and she’ll be losing herself if she tries to be.
Themes
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