Essay: Theme of obsession in “Educated” by Tara Westover

Tara Westover in her memoir writes about how her father’s religion obsession drove him to have unreasonable views that escalated to an obsession of danger and safety. Gene’s religious and politically fuelled paranoia created an obsession that brainwashed the daily lives of the family. Similarly, in the Jonestown documentary on the life of Jim Jones the founder and leader of the cult Peoples Temple, the theme of obsession can be clearly seen. The congregation has a passion for their leader whose message of social equality is positive but actions such as control and sexual behaviours are very much obstructive. In Tara memoir “Educated” and Jonestown Documentary, the recurrent theme of obsession control the victims’ everyday lives by influencing what they do and don’t do.
Tara’s father Gene seriously feared Feds. This fear creates a disillusion that the government is out to harm its people. This troublesome fear intensified to become an obsession, which leads him to continually stock a pile of weapons and essential supplies (Westover 23). His preoccupation with danger and creation of safety instilled a great deal of anxiety among the family members. However, Gene’s protection from danger and ensuring of safety was contrary to what the family experienced on a daily basis. He created an environment of terror within the household where his family lived with the fear of apprehension. In addition, safety was never considered and as a result, there was an occurrence of many horrific accidents particularly on the farm as they never even used to wear any protective garments on working. At one point Tara’s brother lost a slice of his arm when he was cut by a big guillotine. Gene also liquefied the lower part of his face when a petrol tank exploded while he was cutting it (Brungard 98). There were also accidents with cars, which his father never put into consideration when building safety for his family. Similarly, the Jonestown Documentary shows Jim Jones a self-proclaimed messiah speaking against government capitalism and racist policies. However, this was just a plot to control his congregation who were majorly made up of African Americans. His followers were obsessed by him and his message that they never realized the things happening within the cult were harming them. For instance, Jim Jones used to sexually engage with the members of the cult both men and women in the name of cleansing and assuring them that they are beautiful. The obsession was so intense that when he told them to drink poison to commit suicide they did, which lead to the death of over 900 followers of Jim Jones.
Religion radicalization and how it affects people’s way of life. Gene who was a self-proclaimed prophet had radical religious beliefs that kept his children including Tara away from school. Gene’s infatuation with religion leads him to deny his children access to an education. Education was mistrusted and Gene believed that it was a ploy by the government to channel kids away from God. As a result, Tara was home-schooled under his father’s instructions up to a certain age where learning stopped and she and her siblings went on to labour in his farm. Tara never stepped foot in a classroom till she was seventeen years of age when she applied to go to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and later transferred to Cambridge University. She gained a Ph.D. at Cambridge within 10 years (Westover 55). Gene’s denial to educate his children forms the basis of Tara’s memoir Educated. Similarly, religion radicalization in the People Temple was so rampant. The followers of Jim Jones became obsessed with his message of socialism. He promised them paradise where there were no racism and persecution. However, they ended up suffering from lack of food, abuse and long working hours contrarily to what they had promised. To make the matters worse if anyone could report what is happening at Jonestown they faced persecution, public humiliation and beating from the members within the cult. In addition, the fixation that Jim Jones was their survivor leads people to believe the fake miracles being performed in the People’s Temple. Religion radicalization denies people their right to basic need such as education, food, protection from abuse and basic human decency.
Obsession with control resulted in the oppression of Gene’s family and Jim Jones congregation. The great desire to control made Gene dominate his entire family where he instilled his beliefs in them. For example, he prohibited his children from attending school and bars his family from using conventional medicine arguing that the drugs are contaminated. Gene’s patriarchy can also be seen where he forces his wife to become a midwife against her will (Robillard 9). He also uses his power to force Audrey his daughter to get married at a really young age. Due to his obsessive desire to control, his family had to obey him in whatever he asked of them even when they may not concur with him. At the end of Tara explained that his father’s bipolar would be the reason he acted in an obsessive and paranoid manner. In almost the same way Jim Jones’ great desire to control started with him gaining loyalty and trust from his followers. He achieved this by helping the poor, the sick and the oppression in the society. He fought against economic and social inequality. However, this message was also loaded with condemnation of people who can afford luxuries. Those who had access to luxurious things were made to feel guilty. Moreover, his followers were also forced to feel bad if they rested or slept for too long, which resulted in them having virtually no sleep at all. In this way, Jim had turned his members into zombies so that he would think for them thus control by diminishing their ability to oppose his actions as well as any instruction directed to them to perform.
Conclusively, the theme of obsession is recurrent on the memoir “Educated” by Tara Westover. Gene Westover dominates this trope clearly seen in his religious belief and character. Gene’s religious outbursts, his radical belief in his path to righteousness as well as his radicalized political view made him greatly obsessed with having a certain controlled way of life. His view of the world at that time resulted in him denying his children the right to education, medicine, and safety. Jim Jones followers also suffered in the hands of the man they had trusted. Jim enslaved his members and denied them their right to having food, luxurious and importantly, their right to humanity.
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