Educated: A Memoir

Westover remembers the first time an outsider witnessed Shawn’s abusiveness towards her. During a break from school, Westover invited Charles to Thanksgiving dinner at Buck’s Peak. Before dinner, Shawn poked her hard in the ribs, causing her to drop a plate of rolls. She shouted at him, and he drug her out of the room and shoved her head in the toilet. Westover broke free and ran away, but Shawn drug her back into the house again, breaking her toe in the process. Charles tried to help her, and she laughed loudly the whole time, as if she was trying to convince him that the whole thing was a joke and that Shawn was not really abusing her.

But Charles fled, not even staying for supper. Several hours later, he called her and asked to meet. Westover tried to convince him that he did not see what he thought he saw. Although she loved Charles, maintaining the lie about her life with her family was the most important thing of all. Charles told her that the situation with her family was too much, and “he couldn’t save her” (196), that only she could save herself. Westover had no idea what he was talking about, and the couple breaks up.