My Seminar was from the chapter "Two Kinds." This chapter was told from June's perspectve, and outlines her feelings towards her mother. June felt that her mother pushed her too hard, and as a result, June always failed. She began not trying anymore, and really stopped caring about succeeding or not, which greatly disappointed her mother.
The passage i used was on page 153, paragraph 7: "“It was not only the disappointment my mother felt in me. In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations. I didn’t get strait As. I didn’t become class president. I didn’t get into Stanford. I dropped out of college.
For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me.
And for all those years, we never talked about the disaster at the recital or my terrible accusations afterward at the piano bench. All that remained unchecked, like a betrayal that was now unspeakable. So I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped for something so large that failure was inevitable.
And even worse, I never asked her what frightened me the most: Why had the given up hope?”

The theme of this passage is that high expectations will lead to failure.

My first question, "Is June's perspective of only being able to be herself, and no better, the result of June not wanting to succeed in those areas, or to spite her mother," sparked various debate. Although the class could not reach a consencous, most agreed that in the beginning of the chapter, June wants to succeed, but after failure she no longer cares, and begins to spite her mother for pushing her so hard.

My second question, unfortunatly, could not be answered due to time restraint:
"After June told her mother she wishes she was dead like her two sisters, her mother gives up hope in June's podigy abilities. Why is this?" Please, if you have any comments at all on this question, please post them!