Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Jonathan Livingston Seagull Summary | Plot Summary

Jonathan Livingston Seagull follows the adventures of a rebellious young seagull learning that there is more to life than filling one's belly. He learns to fly in ways no gull ever has, and then he learns in heaven the meaning of life as perfection and unity with the Great Gull beyond time and space. He returns to Earth to teach this truth to willing young gulls over the objections of the stodgy gull establishment.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a freethinking young gull, not content just to fill his belly with scraps scavenged from the fishing boat like the rest of the Breakfast Flock. He wants to experience the freedom of flight enjoyed by other bird species. Opposed by everyone, including his own family, Jonathan experiments, often disastrously, until he figures out the dynamics of flight and practices its techniques to perfection. Enthusiastic to share his discoveries with the rest of the Flock, Jonathan is surprised to be condemned for unorthodoxy by the Elders and exiled to the Far Cliffs. Further refining his flying abilities makes his long, solitary life satisfying, but he remains troubled that he cannot share the truth with others. Two shining gulls appear to him in old age, and after testing their flying prowess, he accepts their offer to convey him to new heights and a new home.

In "heaven," Jonathan learns from a mentor, Sullivan, that he is a rare gull, able to understand that there is more to life than food and prestige in the Flock. This is just a first step in the afterlife, with movement dependent on continuing learning and application. With Sullivan as his encouraging instructor and the kindly Elder Chiang as his guru, Jonathan masters the technique of transporting himself across space by realizing that he lives everywhere and in all times. The Flock in heaven holds Jonathan in awe, a status he finds embarrassing. Chiang's last commandment is that Jonathan work on perfecting kindness and love, which only makes Jonathan yearn more to return to Earth. He feels that he is a born instructor and that love demands the truth be shared with some willing gull. Jonathan and Sullivan argue the question of whether Jonathan is better off because the Elder Chiang refrained from returning to Earth and thus was available for him in heaven, or whether Jonathan might have arrived in heaven even better prepared had he met Chiang on Earth. Jonathan decides he must return.

Within six months back on Earth, Jonathan gathers six followers, but he is frustrated that they desire only practical flight lessons and none of the philosophy he has attained in heaven about their true nature as ideas of the Great Gull. The Council proclaims that anyone who dares join Jonathan will fall under the fearful ban, but Jonathan wins two bold converts. An outer circle of curious but cringing listeners gather around them, and Jonathan proclaims the gull's right to fly free despite the claims of ritual, superstition and the limitations imposed by the Law of the Flock. Only the law leading to freedom is valid, Jonathan proclaims.

The Flock decides that Jonathan must be either the unique Son of the Great Gull or thousands of years ahead of his time. While denying and scoffing at thought of the former, Jonathan sees the latter as a very depressing prospect. Jonathan's most promising pupil, Fletcher, dies in a sacrificial accident, crashing into a cliff to avoid hitting a novice who wanders into the path of his high-speed dive. Jonathan offers Fletcher the choice of continuing his own growth on a higher plane of reality in heaven or returning to instruct the Flock. Fletcher chooses the latter. When part of the Flock seeks to kill Fletcher as a destroying devil, Jonathan transports him to safety and instructs him further. Before being transfigured and vanishing, Jonathan tells Fletcher to keep finding himself until he is unlimited and warns not to let others spread silly rumors about him, a seagull that just likes to fly. Fletcher loves the Flock as he suddenly perceives them - subject to no limitations - and his race to learn begins.