The novel tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull
who is bored with the daily squabbles over food and seized by a passion
for flight. He pushes himself, learning everything he can about flying,
until finally his unwillingness to conform results in his expulsion
from his flock. An outcast, he continues to learn, becoming increasingly
pleased with his abilities as he leads an idyllic life.
One day, Jonathan is met by two seagulls who take him to a “higher
plane of existence”, where he meets other gulls who love to fly.
He discovers that his sheer tenacity and desire to learn make him “a
gull in a million”. Jonathan befriends the wisest gull in this
new place, named Chiang, who takes him beyond his previous learning,
teaching him how to move instantaneously to anywhere else in the universe.
The secret, Chiang says, is to “begin by knowing that you have
already arrived”.
Not satisfied with his new life, Jonathan returns to Earth to find others
like him, to bring them his learning and to spread his love for flight.
His mission is successful, gathering around him others who have been
outlawed for not conforming. Ultimately, one of his students, Fletcher
Lynd Seagull, becomes a teacher in his own right and Jonathan leaves
to continue his learning.
Interpretation
Jonathan transcends into another society where all the gulls enjoy flying.
He is only capable of this after practicing hard alone for a long time.
In this other society, real respect emerges as a contrast of the coercive
force that was keeping the former “Breakfast Flock” together.
The learning process, linking the highly experienced teacher and the
diligent student, is raised into almost sacred level, suggesting that
this may be the true relation between human and God. The author surely
thinks that human and God, regardless of the all immense difference,
are sharing something of great importance that can bind them together:
“you’ve got to understand that a seagull is an unlimited
idea of freedom, an image of the Great Gull.” he realizes that
you have to be true to yourself. The source of happiness comes from
perservering to achieve your own dreams.
The introduction to the third part of the book are the last words of
Jonathan’s teacher: “keep working on love.” In this
part Jonathan understands that the spirit cannot be really free without
the ability to forgive, and the way to progress leads through becoming
a teacher — not just through working hard as a student. Jonathan
returns to the Breakfast Flock to share his newly discovered ideals
and the recent tremendous experience, ready for the difficult fight
against the current rules of that society. The ability to forgive seems
to be a mandatory “passing condition”. “Do you want
to fly so much that you will forgive the Flock, and learn, and go back
to them one day and work to help them know?” Jonathan asks his
first student before getting into any further talks. The idea that the
stronger can reach more by leaving the weaker friends behind seems totally
rejected. Hence, love, deserved respect, and forgiveness seem to be
equally important to the freedom from the pressure to obey the rules
just because they are commonly accepted.
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