Patriarchal Control and Women Empowerment: An Existential Feminist Analysis of Tara Westover’s Educated

Abstract

The article examines Tara Westover’s memoir Educated in the thought of Simone de Beauvoir’s Existential Feminism. The memoir tells how Westover grew up as an isolated survivalist in a rural part of Idaho and then became one of the most highly educated professors at the Cambridge University. The study is qualitative in nature; data is gathered through close reading of the memoir. The analysis is directed by de Beauvoir's ideas of ‘the Other’, transcendence, freedom and self-creation, emphasizing Tara's courage to question roles imposed by society and build upon a sense of self through education and choice. The findings ascertain education as a strong instrument of liberation whereby the dependence and marginalized position of Tara could be transformed to self-awareness and autonomy. Thus the epiphanic use of Existential Feminism in Educated provides a richer comprehension of the problem of women in terms of their journey toward freedom, identity and self-redefinition.