Jonathan Livingston Seagull Summary

Overview

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach is a story of unmatched ambition and intense curiosity that focuses on the life of a seagull named Jonathan, who aspires to conquer the globe by taking off to faraway locations rather than wasting his time searching for food scraps like his fellow birds. The book was first published in 1970 and again in 2014 as the complete version with an additional part. By using an animal as his main character, Bach shows his audience that anything is possible if they believe in their potential and ability and put in the necessary effort.

Summary

Other birds in Jonathan Livingston Seagull's Flock were not like him. Most gulls only understood the "simplest facts of flight," and they solely employed flight as a means of transit and to obtain food. But Jonathan, unlike other gulls, enjoyed practicing aerial maneuvers and pushing the boundaries of his speed and posture. He used to feel uncomfortable with disappointing his parents and often used to momentarily contemplate trying to blend in with the flock. He struggled with being different and even gets suspected by the flock for behaving differently. But after making a breakthrough in flying and mastering a challenging flight from a height of 5,000 feet, he felt more inclined than ever to dedicate his life to researching flight.

After his breakthrough, Jonathan got called to a council meeting by his flock that night. When he gets reunited with his flock up on the beach, he is picked out and humiliated by an elder gull. He is called an "outcast" by his flock before getting abandoned and sent to faraway cliffs. Jonathan regrettably realizes that he would have to spend the rest of his life alone. He thinks about his intention to demonstrate his novel flight techniques to the flock and show them how these techniques would have made reaching fertile food sources in the water much simpler.

Jonathan lives a long life filled with solitude for a number of years. One night, when Jonathan is in the middle of a flight, two shining birds surround him in flight and ask him to come with them to move toward a higher realm of life. Jonathan discovers that his body shined in the moonlight and he thinks that the new place where he has come is heaven. His new body had the ability to fly higher than his old one, but it still had some limitations. A few gulls in this new world shared Jonathan's beliefs and strived to develop their creative flight techniques. Jonathan works out with a trainer named Sullivan, who praises Jonathan's talent, quickness, and self-awareness and calls him his finest student ever.

Chiang, the elder gull of this new flock, reveals to Jonathan mid-conversations that there are ways to transcend even the limitations of his physical body, but only if he could learn to appreciate the perfection that comes from being present in the knowledge that his true nature exists "everywhere at once, across time and space." When Jonathan eventually perfects instantaneous teleportation, Chiang is impressed, and Jonathan is chosen to be Chiang's unique student. As Jonathan continues to learn, he can't help but think about the world he left behind. He longs to return and share what he has discovered in this new world with the other gulls.

After leaving for Earth, Jonathan finds Fletcher Lynd Seagull, a newly expelled gull from his flock. Admiring Fletcher's flying, Jonathan promises to teach him, but he holds a condition that he would only teach him if Fletcher agrees to come back to its flock and share what the two have learned with the rest of the gulls. Fletcher concurs, and they both start their lessons. After three months, Jonathan succeeds in gathering an intimate group of six special students, whom he instructs in-flight maneuvers and mental training to aid them in escaping their physical restraints. Jonathan notifies his pupils that it is time to return to their flock and impart their wisdom.

Despite their skepticism, his students consent to accompany him to their former shore. The flock avoids Jonathan and his students as they perform aerial stunts above the ocean just offshore. However, over time, some interested gulls from the flock approach Jonathan and the others and inquire about learning to fly. Even the timid Terrence Lowell Gull and the crippled Kirk Maynard Gull show courage by joining Jonathan's group, and soon thousands of gulls congregate daily to hear Jonathan's musings on the virtues of freedom and the rites, superstitions, and restraints that prevent true freedom.

Jonathan regrets that the others cannot simply recognize him as one of them because of the rumors that he is a divine bird, possibly even the 'Son of the Great Gull' himself. The others start referring to Fletcher as a divine gull when he collides with a precipice and survives a near-death experience. Later, Jonathan informs Fletcher that it is the moment for him to ascend, leaving Fletcher behind to carry on his legacy. Despite Fletcher's pleas for Jonathan to stay, he shimmers before rising into the sky. However, Jonathan says to Fletcher before leaving that he might see him again. Fletcher steps into his new position as Jonathan's former students' instructor, sad but determined to continue Jonathan's teachings.

As more and more gulls adopted Jonathan's philosophy in the years after his death, a golden era of flight and invention began. Delivering their teachings to new flocks, Fletcher and his new flock of students flew up and down the coastline. Although Jonathan had become utterly holy without Fletcher, Fletcher remained a symbol in his own right. As Jonathan's followers increased, they started to disregard his basic teachings and concentrate on the hagiography of Jonathan and his first students.

As Jonathan's first students started to pass away, their graves turned into shrines where followers scattered stones for them to appear more holy. Weekly meetings started being held to narrate the marvels that Jonathan created incessantly, but there was scarcely any flying after two centuries, and Jonathan's philosophy was only ever mentioned in passing. Many gulls started to rebel against these rituals and lectures, and in attempting something "new" like practicing flying, they came full circle to what Jonathan had intended for his flock and everyone else in the first place, which was to extend their sense of self by pushing their bodies to their limits.

Young Anthony Seagull wanted to take his own life by dive-bombing out of the sky because he felt surrounded by dishonesty and the meaninglessness of the rituals being performed. However, a glistening bird approached him as he went down to the ocean and praised him for his form and elegance. When Anthony inquires about the gull's name, the gull says, "You can call me Jon."

Conclusion

Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a fable that uses animals to deliver deeper life lessons such as freedom, self-reflection, and so on. There are a number of themes that are at work in the story such as the realization of the self, pushing ourselves to reach beyond what we think our limit is, and how important freedom is in our life whether it is from society or our cages of the mind. The story is an allegory that draws a huge focus on the fact that how we perceive ourselves has a great impact on our identity and if we give our best, no goal is impossible to accomplish.