Jonathan Livingston Seagull

“It’s all so pointless, he thought, deliberately dropping a hard-won anchovy to a hungry old gull chasing him. I could be spending all this time learning to fly. There’s so much to learn!” 

Unlike the other seagulls, Jonathan is not content with a purely physical existence centered on fighting for small pieces of fish. Although he tries to obey his parents and fit in with the Flock, he’s unable to suppress his urge to fly, which is itself symbolic of his desire to learn and grow beyond his prior limits.

“Seagulls never fly in the dark!” 

Jonathan remembers that seagulls “never fly” at night while he is in fact flying at night, thus proving the Flock’s teaching to be more a matter of convention or superstition than actual wisdom; the success of his own flight suggests that there’s no reason for gulls not to fly at night beyond the fact that it’s simply not done. The passage is therefore a turning point for Jonathan, who had previously resolved to “be a normal gull” after another failed attempt at diving (21).

“One who has touched excellence in his learning has no need of that kind of promise.” 

After promising himself once again to try to fit in with the Flock, Jonathan has an epiphany about the secret to high-speed and controlled dives. He immediately tests his theory, to great success, and feels entirely “guiltless” (25) as he makes plans to test his skills further. The promises he made to himself were simply boundaries he imposed on himself, and Jonathan’s entire journey over the course of the novella is towards transcending any sort of limitations on the self.

“His thought was triumph. Terminal velocity! A seagull at two hundred fourteen miles per hour! It was a breakthrough, the greatest single moment in the history of the Flock, and in that moment a new age opened for Jonathan Gull.” 

Jonathan’s diving practice culminates in a dive in which he reaches “terminal velocity”—the fastest speed (supposedly) available to him on Earth. Although Parts 2 and 3 will suggest that even this kind of physical barrier is ultimately illusory, Jonathan’s success is nevertheless a significant moment in his journey to push the boundaries of what’s possible. It’s also significant that his immediate inclination is to share this victory with the rest of the Flock; personal fulfillment, the novella will ultimately demonstrate, is meaningless and in fact impossible if it does not take an interest in the growth and well-being of others.

“We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!” 

From the beginning, it’s clear that Jonathan’s interest in flying is about more than simply the physical action itself. Rather, as the above passage indicates, he sees perfecting his flying skills as a way of unlocking or discovering his true nature “of excellence and intelligence and skill.” This idea becomes central in Part 2, where flying is increasingly associated with the recognition of the self as infinite and free to move through time and space at will.

“The Brotherhood is broken.” 

Contrary to Jonathan’s expectations, the Flock responds to the success of his experiments in diving not with excitement but with disapproval: they accuse him of “violating the dignity and tradition of the Gull Family” (34) and banish him. This response highlights the power of conformity within the Flock; not only do the other gulls fear any deviation from the norm, but they view expulsion from the community as the worst fate imaginable. The novella ultimately upholds the value of community, provided that that community works to further the growth of its individual members.

“‘We’re from your Flock, Jonathan. We are your brothers.’” 

When two perfect seagulls arrive to escort Jonathan to the next world, he first tests their abilities and—finding that they match his own—asks who they are. Their response surprises him, because, having been exiled by his former Flock, Jonathan has grown used to seeing himself as a solitary being. However, much of the rest of the novella will demonstrate that an individual can only reach their highest potential via connection with others. 

“‘I’m ready,’ he said at last.” 

Jonathan’s apparent death—and ascension to heaven—ultimately turns out to be a shift from one state of existence to another. His words in this passage are therefore truer than he knows at the time; as the gulls who have arrived to escort him indicate, Jonathan has learned all he can on Earth, and is consequently “ready” to further his growth in another world.

“So this is heaven, he thought, and he had to smile at himself.” 

When he reaches his new home, Jonathan initially believes himself to be in heaven, but quickly finds it doesn’t match his expectations of what such a place should be: his body is still subject to certain physical limitations, and there are very few other gulls there. This confusion stems from Jonathan’s idea of heaven as a discrete place, when in fact (as Chiang will later tell him), it is a state of being unbound by time and space.

“‘But you, Jon,’ he said, ‘learned so much at one time that you didn’t have to go through a thousand lives to reach this one.’” 

As Jonathan’s new teacher Sullivan explains it, the place Jonathan now finds himself in isn’t so much an afterlife as it is another form of life—a level of existence that becomes accessible to gulls only once they have learned to look beyond their basic physical needs. The passage is one of the clearest examples of the influence of Eastern philosophy and religion on Bach’s thinking, as what Sullivan is describing is similar to the process of reincarnation as it’s understood in Hinduism or Buddhism: a journey towards greater enlightenment.

“‘Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect.’” 

In describing heaven as a state of being, Chiang implicitly explains why Jonathan has found himself running up against physical limitations even in this new realm of existence; the perfection of heaven is not a set of external conditions but rather an awareness of oneself as perfect (in the sense of infinite or limitless). In fact, the very concept of place and time are incompatible with heaven, since they place artificial limits on the self.

“‘Perfect speed, my son, is being there.’” 

Chiang says the above just before vanishing and reappearing “fifty feet away, all in the flicker of an instant” (55). By “being there,” he implies the state of awareness that makes this travel possible: a sense of existing throughout time and space. This feeling is comparable to some interpretations of the concept of nirvana (particularly within the Hindu tradition) as a state of oneness with an ultimate and infinite reality.  

“The trick was to know that his true nature lived, as perfect as an unwritten number, everywhere at once across space and time.” 

Once again, Chiang’s teachings draw heavily on Eastern philosophy and religion. In particular, his efforts to awaken a sense of expanded consciousness in Jonathan resemble the goals of transcendental meditation, which developed out of Hindu practices and beliefs and became popular in the U.S. over the course of the 1960s and ‘70s; in fact, proponents of transcendental meditation would ultimately (and controversially) argue that the practice could confer seemingly impossible abilities of the kind Jonathan himself develops (e.g. levitation).

“‘To fly as fast as you thought, to anywhere that is,’ he said, “you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.’” 

The above passage points to the significance of flight as a symbol. For the novella’s readers, flight likely already evokes a sense of ultimate freedom and possibility; because humans can’t fly unaided, flight tends in literature to represent liberation from all physical constraints. In relating flight to a form of expanded consciousness, Bach takes this notion one step further, tying it to the realization of the self itself as limitless.

“‘I am a perfect, unlimited gull!’”

Jonathan initially struggles with Chiang’s lessons because, as Chiang notes, he is thinking about them in terms of “faith” (59)—that is, he is trying to will himself to another place through force of belief. This misunderstands the core of Chiang’s teaching, which is that Jonathan already exists everywhere, and that he simply needs to become aware of that basic fact. As a result, the moment Jonathan has the above epiphany, he finds himself on an alien beach.

“‘Jonathan...keep working on love’” 

Chiang’s final lesson (as well as the book’s) concerns the importance of love and forgiveness. If the self is truly limitless, hatred and anger, which divide us from others, are barriers to realizing our true nature. Any quest for perfection must therefore involve others, which is why Jonathan decides to return to Earth; in order to reach his fullest potential, Jonathan must forgive the Flock and help them in their own growth. 

“‘The gull sees farthest who flies highest.’” 

When Jonathan announces his plans to return to Earth, Sullivan quotes the above proverb in an attempt to dissuade him—his point being that the gulls in Jonathan’s first Flock are too mired in their mundane concerns to be able to grasp the spiritual lessons Jonathan is offering. Jonathan initially accepts Sullivan’s advice, but ultimately changes his mind and decides to return to Earth. This marks an important step in his own spiritual journey, since any concept of limitlessness must also extend to the barriers between the self and others.

“‘Everything that limits us we have to put aside.” 

When Jonathan returns to Earth, he gathers a group of students who have been made Outcasts for their interest in flight. In sharing his own flying skills, however, Jonathan also attempts to instill in his students the metaphysical concepts he has learned from Chiang; as he now sees it, the physical act of flight is simply “a step toward expressing our real nature“ (76), because it involves pushing the boundaries of the possible. Initially, his students struggle to grasp this idea, but Fletcher’s later, inadvertent jump from one level of consciousness to another demonstrates that they do in fact have the ability to understand Jonathan’s teachings.

“‘We are free to go where we wish and to be what we are,’ Jonathan answered, and he lifted from the sand and turned east, toward the home grounds of the Flock.”

To his students’ dismay, Jonathan decides after only a few months that it’s time for them return to the Flock. However, their very protestations demonstrate Jonathan’s point, which is that they must learn to recognize their essential freedom; until they return, the students will continue to see themselves as bound by the “Law of the Flock” (77) that forbids Outcasts from returning. 

“‘I say you are free.’” 

When Kirk Maynard Gull—a bird with a broken or wounded wing—approaches Jonathan to ask for his help, Jonathan’s response is to tell him that he is already able to fly. In response, Kirk “effortlessly” (83) takes to the air. The moment is a turning point in the story, sparking the rest of the Flock’s interest in Jonathan and leading many among them to view him as “divine” (83). In this sense, it echoes the story of Jesus healing the sick, while also suggesting that that story has been misinterpreted; Jonathan does not heal Kirk himself, but rather enables him to understand his own limitless potential.

“The price of being misunderstood, he thought. They call you devil or they call you god.” 

As Jonathan observes, the majority of the Flock responds to him with either deification or condemnation; they see events like the healing of Kirk as acts performed by Jonathan himself, and consequently conclude that he must be either the “Son of the Great Gull” (84) or an evil power of some kind. In each case, they are fundamentally misunderstanding Jonathan’s role and teaching, which is simply to unlock the abilities that the gulls themselves already possess. 

“‘Why is it,’ Jonathan puzzled, ‘that the hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free, and that he can prove it for himself if he’d just spend a little time practicing? Why should that be so hard?”

The above passage takes place immediately after Jonathan and Fletcher have escaped from the mob of frightened and angry gulls. In addition to reiterating Jonathan’s basic role within the Flock—he is not performing miracles but merely trying to “convince the birds that they’re free”—it offers important insight into Jonathan’s character and temperament. In the face of the Flock’s hatred and violence, Jonathan’s response is simply to feel “puzzled” (and perhaps somewhat saddened) by their intolerance. In other words, he has taken Chiang’s words about the importance of love to heart, and genuinely wants the best even for those who wish him ill.

“Jonathan Seagull had vanished into empty air.” 

In much the same way that Chiang did earlier, Jonathan vanishes into another world after he has fulfilled his purpose in this one; as he told Fletcher a moment earlier, he needs to continue to share and spread his insights about the nature of freedom and perfection. He leaves Fletcher in charge of teaching the Flock going forward, ensuring that he too will eventually realize the importance of love and kindness to his own spiritual journey.