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“Then Dad lifted Mother from the station wagon and I saw her face -- her eyes, hidden under dark circles the size of plums, and the swelling distorting her soft features, stretching some, compressing others” (38).

CONTEXT: This is right after Tyler fell asleep at the wheel while they were driving home from Arizona (in the middle of the night). Tara's father insisted they leave right away.

WHAT IS THE MEMOIR SAYING ABOUT THIS TOPIC? (This is also known as a THEME)
Car accidents happen, unfortunately. But this one is suggesting that accidents are also caused by how people make decisions. Are the Westover's asleep at the wheel?

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"When the director of the play got divorced, it confirmed Dad's suspicions.He said he hadn't kept me out of the public school for all these years just to see me corrupted on a stage" (87).

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"When the director of the play got divorced, it confirmed Dad's suspicions.He said he hadn't kept me out of the public school for all these years just to see me corrupted on a stage" (87).

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CONTEXT: This is while Tara's father was prepping for Y2K. They would be the only people who had food and fuel when disaster struck. After the dance recital issues, Tara participates in a play.

WHAT'S THE MEMOIR SAYING ABOUT THIS TOPIC?
It invokes special knowledge -- not school knowledge (Y2K). Also, it shows Tara dipping her toes into the world of school and society. Her father was actually not against her being in the plays. He always came and sat front row.

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QUOTE: “I settled myself on a length of iron. Dad jammed the forks under the bin, then lifted me and the scrap and began driving, full throttle, toward the trailer’s head. I could barely hold on. On the last turn, the bucket swung with such force that a spike of iron was flung toward me. It pierced the inside of my leg, an inch below my knee, sliding into the tissue like a knife into warm butter” (64).

CONTEXT: Dad and Tara are emptying a bin of scrap and iron. Dad asks Tara to be in with the pile of iron for some sense of convenience. She gets badly hurt by the iron cutting her up and her falling.

WHAT'S THE MEMOIR SAYING ABOUT THIS TOPIC?

Tara’s incident seems almost planned in a way. This is something she has never done before, and a rather bizarre thing for anyone to do in general. Why would someone forklift their own daughter with hundreds of pounds of iron with it? Dad does say “I’ll pause when the bin’s level with the trailer wall so you can climb out” but that isn’t even a logical idea. The idea of Dad and his mental issue comes into play here when considering his sanity in this situation. Whether or not this is a factor, it may be seen as the Dad trying to strengthen her daughter up when all of his sons are not helping.

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Quote: "We don't go to school. Dad worries that the government will force us to go." We have no school records because we've never set foot into a classroom." (Page: xii) - Prologue

Context:

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"By the time I'd scrambled to my feet, Dad had launched something else. I ducked but lost my footing and fell. This time I stayed down. I was shaking but not from cold.My skin was alive and tingling with the certainty of danger..." (pg 56)

Context: This happened after Tyler left and Richard and Tara were her father's new helpers/crew. Since they were too young to help build hay sheds they went to the junkyard. But while Tara's father was sorting out the steel, copper, and aluminum he hit Tara and from there from she was scared.

WHAT IS THE MEMOIR SAYING ABOUT THIS TOPIC?
Accidents happen and Tara was genuinely scared of getting hurt.

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“Hey 🤬, raise the boom” or “Fetch me a level, 🤬”—I returned to the university, to that auditorium..."(tara).

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Quote: "I was remembering the strange pattern the blood had made  as it streaked down Emma's wrist, smearing across her forearm when I stood and, still shaking tried to pry loose the small length of copper tubing." (Page: 56)

Context: This was talking about when Tara was explaining where the blood was and

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QUOTE: "They argued daily, about the mess from the junkyard but more often about us kids. Grandma thought we should be in school and not, as she put it, 'roaming the mountains like savages.' Dad said public school was a ploy by the Government to lead children away from God. 'I may as well surrender my kids to the devil himself,' he said, 'as send them down the road to that school' " (5).

CONTEXT: Dad and his mom are shown to argue a lot, and one about Dad's decision to keep his kids out of school.

WHAT'S THE MEMOIR SAYING ABOUT THIS TOPIC?

The idea of education presented by the memoir seems to argue that it leads people away from God. Education makes us forget our morals and beliefs in a way.

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“Robert, who worked for dad, lost a finger. I remembered staring at the bloody stump, and then at the severed finger,which Luke brought in and placed on the counter… Mother put it on ice and rushed Robert to town so the doctor can sew it up” (56).

Context: This is when Robert was working with the Dad and came back with a finger cut off which they had to go to the doctors to sew it back together

Memoir: The part where Robert get's his finger cut off is to show the danger that family is living by them being alone. I also think the part where they bring Robert to the doctors symbolizes that they need the government and the doctors and they can’t always rely on themselves

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"Until that moment some part of me had wanted the Feds to come, had craved the adventure. Now I feel real fear. I pictured my brothers crouching in the dark, their sweaty hands slipping down their rifles. I pictured Mother, tired and parched, drawing back away from the window. I pictured myself lying flat on the floor, still and silent, listening to the sharp chirp of crickets in the field. Then I saw mother stand and reach for the kitchen tap. A white flash, the roar of gunfire, and she fell. I leapt to catch the baby" (11)

Background: Tara's father planted the idea, that they had to prepare for the end of days. She was always exposed to weapons, survival skills, and events such as Ruby Ridge. Her family prepares her as much as they can for the aforementioned Day of Abomination.

What the memoir says about this topic: Like Tara, the idea and willpower to commit violence, although wrong in it's purest sense, can always be obscured and seen as a necessity. We don't grow up suddenly feeling that we have to suddenly fight for our existence. Like Tara, these values come from our environment. In her case, it was the mistrust that her Father expressed against the federal government and it parallels how violence doesn't stem from nothing.  We're molded by our environments, there's always a backstory to why people choose to harm others.

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...Dad flung a catalytic converter. I leapt aside, cutting my hand on the serrated edge of a punctured tank. I wiped the blood on my jeans and shouted 'Don't throw them here! I'm here!'"
What the memoir says about this topic:
After this happened her father said that she will not hurt because of God and the Angels by their side. This shows that one accidents happen but that also people have their beliefs on how they will be saved from a higher power. And that angels are always watching them and make sure they are okay.