Tara Westover's Brother and Sadistic, what is his real name, and the Psychological Disorders of Shawn and Tara.
The Shortform summary of "Educated" was written by Tara Westover.The world's best summaries of books can be found at Shortform.
Who is Shawn Westover?What is Shawn and Tara's relationship like?Tara Westover does not reveal his real name.
Tara Westover gives a fictional name to one of her brothers in her memoir.
Tara chose not to reveal Shawn's real name, even though she used the real names of at least three of her four other brothers, because of the relationship she had with the author.
Tara had difficulty moving her neck after a car crash.Her mother did nothing to alleviate her pain.
Shawn Westover, her older brother, entered her life at this time.When Shawn left the family home at 17 to pursue work in trucking and welding, Tara had a minimal relationship with him.He had been away for many years.Shawn was well-known as a bully, brawler, and provocateur in the community.
Tara had a similar experience with Shawn when he violently twisted her head to help her get her neck back into place after the accident.Tara was able to pivot her neck again because of this harsh treatment.What was to come between the two siblings was foretold by his non-consensual laying of hands on Tara.Tara would spend most of the rest of her time on Buck's Peak subject to Shawn and his displays of kindness, which were often followed by terrifying cruelty and violence.
Shawn had an unstable and combative personality.Shawn would bully Tara's friends at the theater when he drove her there.He would knock soda out of their hands to humiliate them.
Shortly after Shawn Westover came back home, he invited Tara to come along with him on a long-haul trucking job down the West Coast.Tara was excited about the chance to travel and spend time with her mystery older brother.
Shawn was operating on little sleep and even faked the reports at inspection points to make it look like he was getting more rest than he actually was.Tara was presented with the menacing side of his personality.He taught her how to hurt her opponent with only two fingers, after he decided to teach her martial arts.She was shown how to throw her full body weight behind a punch and crush someone's windpipe.Shawn had an appetite for violence.
Tara was having fun with her brother.She remembers playing video games, learning a new language, and eating junk food while she was with him.The violence was there, but it wasn't fully visible.
Shawn could be emotionally abusive to women and girls.He had become acquainted with a girl who was in the same theater as Tara.This girl was tortured every chance he got because of his crush on Shawn Westover.
Shawn would refuse to speak to her if he saw her talking to another boy.He would force her to buy items for him, only to change his mind and chastise her for bringing the wrong thing.Over the course of a night, he would repeat this exercise with her.
Sadie began changing her behavior to appease Shawn.She wanted the boys at school to stop walking next to her so Shawn wouldn't see them when he picked her up.
Tara was going to be a direct recipient of Shawn's anger.Shawn Westover threatened not to drive her into town the next day if she didn't comply with his order to fetch him a glass of water.Tara put a glass on his head.Shawn reacted quickly and brutally.
He demanded Tara apologize and chased her down the hallway.He pushed her head into the toilet after lifting her off the ground.
He used one of the torture techniques he had taught her on their recent road trip, twisting her wrist and pushing it against her inner forearm, causing her great pain.
In 2001 Tara turned 15.Increased attention to her body and new efforts by the men in her life to control her sexuality came about because she was now fully in puberty.
She remembers how her body changed as she got older.Tara began to feel the full weight of her family's patriarchal and misogynistic views on women, marriage, and sexuality.
Tara was shamed by Shawn Westover for her actions.He harshly chastised her for her friendship with Charles, a young man she met at the theatre, telling Tara that she was developing a reputation for being that kind of girl.Shawn forced his sister to walk for 12 miles in the cold to get home.
As Tara got deeper into her teen years, the abuse continued.She woke up one morning and felt a sharp pain in her brain and throat.It was only through the intervention of her mother and Tyler that Tara survived the assault.
Shawn could be protective of Tara.Shawn's need for dominance and control and his patriarchal notions about needing to "guard" women may have led to his protectiveness.
Tara remembers Shawn standing up to Gene and threatening him when Gene tried to force her to operate a dangerous metal-cutting tool at the junkyard.Shawn was the only one who could beat Gene on a consistent basis.
Tara had complicated feelings for Shawn.He was a violent abuser who seemed to have little regard for the safety of others.She enjoyed a special bond with him.
Tara came back from college for Thanksgiving.Charles joined the Westovers for dinner.Tara would never forget that evening.At dinner, Shawn Westover made cruel and snide remarks to Tara and Charles.The situation became out of control when Tara told Shawn not to touch her after he jabbed one of his fingers into her ribs.
Shawn pinned her to the floor just out of view of everyone else.He punched her as she brought dinner rolls to the table.When Tara protested again, Shawn pinned her to the floor and put her in the bathroom, where he shoved her face into the toilet.Tara broke her toe during the attack.The assault was in full view of the family and Charles.
Tara disliked the idea of Charles seeing her as a pawn of Shawn.She tried to make it sound like a game, in which Shawn was roughhousing with her and there was no need to worry.She made a point of laughing throughout her assault, to give off the impression that everything was just a joke.
Charles was upset by Tara's refusal to acknowledge what really happened.He told Tara that she was the only one who could save herself from her family.
Shawn would attack Tara again.She was out driving with Shawn Westover when they found Charles' car in the parking lot of the local gas station.Shawn realized that Tara didn't want Charles to see her with Shawn since she was covered in soot and dirt from the junkyard.Shawn was able to cause maximum humiliation and emotional trauma on his sister.He wanted her to accompany him inside.
He snapped when she refused.She broke her wrist and ankle when he pinned her face-down on the asphalt parking lot.There were a lot of people watching this attack in public.
During the Thanksgiving attack, Tara used a defensive shell and pretended that it was a joke.She made a public show of laughing as Shawn paraded her through the store at the gas station, in front of the people who witnessed the attack in the parking lot.She didn't pay attention to the pain on her wrist and ankle.
Tara went to her room to write about the experience in her diary.She didn't understand why Shawn did these things to her when she begged him to stop.Shawn told her that she should always be free to tell him if his fun and games went too far.She was responsible for not stopping him.He made her think that she had imagined the entire encounter to be more violent than it actually was.It was a classic abuse behavior.
Tara believed that if she had asked Shawn to stop in the right way, he would have stopped the violence.She wrote about the experience in her diary plainly and honestly, without resorting to vague or euphemistic language.It was one of the first things she did to recognize what Shawn really was.
As a survivor, Tara would understand why she had come to believe that Shawn had been her fault.It was comforting for her to accept the abuse because she would at least be able to control it.She was showing a common symptom of abuse victims, that of empathizing with their abusers.
Shawn Westover may have been given a fake name in her memoir because of his abuse of Tara.
Penn is a writer.She has published dozens of articles and book reviews on a wide range of topics, including health, relationships, psychology, science, and much more.She has taught in the US and South Africa.She obtained her Master's Degree in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.
I had a brother like that and he was a sexual abuse as well, ended with attempted murder and the cops being sent, but his mother protected him, I believe he should have spent the rest of his life in maximum security for the mentally insane.The only way to deal with pychos like him is to cut all contact.
Tara suffered abuse at the hands of her brother.I have read reviews and opinion pieces that cast doubt on the accuracy of her memoir, but the physical and mental scars she still carries are not something that can be argued against.That is proof, along with comments from other people who witnessed her brother's violence.
Tara's parents said in a local newspaper article that they did their best with what they knew.I don't understand why her parents allowed her abusive son to abuse them.It would have destroyed the delusional world they lived in to rationalize allowing such violence.
Shawn and Tara's parents have not been locked away for their evil actions.There are women, children and animals still in the clutches of thesemaniacs.Everyone in their vicinity is in grave danger.