Educated: A Memoir

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. In Westover’s pursuit of a traditional education, numerous people and organizations help her along the way.

• What are at least two people or organizations who help Westover in this pursuit? (topic sentence)
• How do their values, beliefs, and behaviors differ from two or more people or organizations who hinder Westover’s education?
• In your concluding sentences, explore how Westover’s experience in Educated embodies The Different Paths to Becoming Educated.

1. There are many uses for literacy—reading and writing—in the Westover home.

• How many uses of literacy can you identify and explore in the text? (topic sentence)
• How do the uses of literacy in the Westover home differ from that Westover learns when she leaves home?
• In your concluding sentences, discuss the implications of the differences between literacy in the Westover home and at college, and how this ties into Westover’s overarching commentary on The Challenge of Memory and Story.

3. Educated raises questions around who is allowed to write history and what it means to chronicle one’s own past.

• How did Westover being the author of her own history play a role in her self-transformation?  (topic sentence)
• What are the different kinds of history/stories in the memoir? Are certain stories, especially told through memory, more fickle/unreliable than others?
• In your conclusion, explore how this relates to the theme The Challenge of Memory and Story and Leaving Home and Finding One’s Place in the World.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Explore the culture of masculinity in the Westover home. In what ways do Gene and Shawn’s ideas about masculinity affect the family? How do power and control factor into Gene and Shawn’s performance of masculinity? As you compose your essay, consider how Gene and Shawn shape Westover Leaving Home and Finding One’s Place in the World. How has Westover’s identity formed in response to the culture of masculinity in which she was raised?

2. Describe and analyze the social consequences that Westover experienced because of the education she received in her home growing up. Conversely, describe/analyze the social consequences that Westover experienced from leaving home and receiving an education in the “real word.” In your response, consider how The Different Paths to Becoming Educated and The Consequences of Belief and Doubt are linked themes, as Westover seeks to discover her identity.

3. What challenges did Westover experience because of her family’s socioeconomic status? How did her financial issues affect her college experience? Using Westover’s experience as an example, describe how colleges and universities today might more effectively support students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In your conclusion, explain how Leaving Home and Finding One’s Place in the World is impacted by one’s financial situation, especially for those individuals who, like Westover, are raised in an environment where The Consequences of Belief and Doubt can be exceedingly dire.