Educated

by

Tara Westover

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The Shear Symbol Icon

“The most frightening machine [Tara has] ever seen,” what Gene Westover calls the Shear, is a “three-ton pair of scissors” with blades made of dense iron. The blades are “twelve inches thick and five feet across,” and they cut through a mechanism of strength rather than sharpness. Just one of the many dangerous apparatuses on the scrap yard, the Shear symbolizes Gene’s obsession with domineering over his family and environment, and putting his family’s fate in the hands of God to prove to himself that their way of living is right. When Gene brings the Shear home to the scrap yard, even Shawn sees the Shear as a “death machine”—and yet Gene is determined to teach his children, including the young and slight Tara, to wrangle the machine. The Shear, then, becomes a symbol of Gene’s wildly delusional belief that he can tame any force of nature or any creation of man through will alone. Within five minutes of teaching the children how to feed scrap into the Shear’s jaws, Luke’s arm is “gashed to the bone” and “spurting” blood, but Gene sees the chomping blades—and his children’s ability to work them—as proof that he can exert control over his family, over the dangerous scrap yard, and over common sense itself. As the years go by and the Westovers experience a series of gruesome and life-threatening accidents in the scrap yard, including third-degree burns, brain bleeds, and serious falls from great heights, they only rarely turn to doctors and hospitals for medical attention, believing the medical profession to be a hotbed for “devils.” Gene and his brood return again and again to the dangerous pursuits which daily threaten their well-being, determined that they will recover if it is God’s will that they do.

The Shear Quotes in Educated

The Educated quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Shear. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Memory, History, and Subjectivity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 15 Quotes

A few days later Dad came home with the most frightening machine I’ve ever seen. He called it the Shear. At first glance it appeared to be a three-ton pair of scissors, and this turned out to be exactly what it was. The blades were made of dense iron, twelve inches thick and five feet across. They cut not by sharpness but by force and mass. […]

Dad had dreamed up many dangerous schemes over the years, but this was the first that really shocked me. Perhaps it was the obvious lethality of it, the certainty that a wrong move would cost a limb. Or maybe that it was utterly unnecessary. It was indulgent. Like a toy, if a toy could take your head off.

Shawn called it a death machine and said Dad had lost what little sense he’d ever had. “Are you trying to kill someone?” he said. “Because I got a gun in my truck that will make a lot less mess.” Dad couldn’t suppress his grin. I’d never seen him so enraptured.

Related Characters: Tara Westover (speaker), Shawn Westover (speaker), Gene Westover / Dad
Related Symbols: The Shear
Page Number: 138
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Shear Symbol Timeline in Educated

The timeline below shows where the symbol The Shear appears in Educated. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 15: No More a Child
Devoutness and Delusion Theme Icon
Family, Abuse, and Entrapment Theme Icon
...continues working the scrap yard. Dad comes home one day with a “frightening” machine called the Shear —it is a “three-ton pair of scissors” with blades “twelve inches thick and five feet... (full context)
Learning and Education Theme Icon
Devoutness and Delusion Theme Icon
Family, Abuse, and Entrapment Theme Icon
Shawn calls the Shear a death machine, and when he sees Dad teaching Tara to use it just moments... (full context)
Family, Abuse, and Entrapment Theme Icon
For over a month, Shawn and Tara run the Shear together each day. Tara manages to avoid any major injury, receiving only a few bruises.... (full context)