Educated: Chapter 30 Summary & Analysis

Tara arrives back at Cambridge—the imposing, beautiful campus is just as she remembered it. This time, though, she is not a visitor or a guest—she is “a member of the university.” Nevertheless, she still feels out of place in her lectures and at mealtime—she is intimidated by how well-read and well-spoken her classmates are. After a complex lecture on negative liberty and positive liberty—"freedom from external obstacles or constraints” versus “freedom from internal constraints”—Tara returns to her room and calls home, telling Mother that she’s worried she’s made a mistake in coming to school. Mother says that through muscle-testing, she’s determined that one of Tara’s chakras it out of balance. She promises to adjust the chakra and “wing it to” Tara. To living energy, Mother says, “distance is nothing.”

One morning, while studying in the library, Tara receives an email from one of her BYU friends, Drew. It contains a link to a song Tara has never heard—“Redemption Song” by Bob Marley. The line “emancipate yourself from mental slavery” resonates with Tara, and as she reads on the internet about Bob Marley’s struggle with cancer and his refusal to treat the disease with traditional medicine, she realizes that she needs to finally get her vaccinations.

Tara begins making a couple friends at school, and goes to coffee with two women one day a few weeks before Christmas. Tara has never had coffee before, as the Mormon church forbids it. While the women discuss feminism—a taboo, embarrassing topic back at BYU—Tara debates whether or not she should drink her coffee. She feels like these other girls are “behind glass.” After the coffee date, Tara returns to the library and begins researching feminism. She falls in love with the writings of early feminist figures such as Mary Wollstonecraft, and finds comfort in knowing that she is not the only woman who has longed to break out of the role prescribed to her.

Tara flies home for Christmas, where her parents have started building an extension onto the house, just off the kitchen. A “single massive room the size of the chapel at church,” complete with a vaulted ceiling and decorated maniacally and without reason, Tara thinks the room suits her parents perfectly. Mother explains that the family is flush with cash from her essential oil business—though money is good, Mother has refused many offers of multimillion-dollar buyouts, emphasizing that healing is her life’s work.

Tara’s brother Richard has come home for the holidays, too—and has brought his wife Kami and their infant son along. Richard is finishing up a chemistry degree at Idaho State, and his wife Kami, though Mormon, is “mainstream.” Kami and Richard’s son was born in a hospital, and they live a “normal” life. Tara watches Richard try to “live in both worlds” and juggle his new beliefs with his desire to please Dad and keep from rocking the boat.

One night, in the middle of an “intense cold spell,” Tara is sitting in the living room with Mother, Dad, Kami, and Richard. Emily flies into the room through the back door—she has no coat or shoes despite the intense cold, and she is crying. As everyone tends to Emily, bundling her with blankets and helping her settle down, she explains that after she returned home from grocery shopping with the wrong kind of crackers, Shawn attacked Emily, flung her from their trailer into the snow, and locked the door on her.

As Tara watches her family tend to Emily, only Kami looks anxious and confused—Tara “resent[s]” Kami, an outsider, for bearing witness to her family’s deep pain. Tara quietly approaches Kami and tries to explain to her that what is going on is “private,” and that they should all go to their rooms and let Mother and Dad handle Emily. Kami and Richard head to bed, but Tara sneaks back out to the kitchen to listen to what’s going on. As Dad picks up the phone to call Shawn and tell him to “come get [his] wife,” Tara realizes that all of this has happened before—everyone knows their roles. Eventually, Shawn shuffles in and endures a “stern” lecture from Dad—but Tara knows that without a “revolution,” nothing in her family will change.