27 pages • 54 minutes read
Richard BachJonathan Livingston Seagull
Fiction | Novella | YA | Published in 1970A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Flight
Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a heavily allegorical work, and the flight its characters practice is central to its symbolism. Whereas for most seagulls, flying is simply a function of their physical existence (specifically, a tool to find food), for Jonathan it is from the start associated with freedom and growth. In teaching himself to fly higher and faster, Jonathan defies both the expectations of the Flock and his own sense of his limitations. The relationship between flight and self-transcendence becomes even clearer in Part 2, when Chiang associates it with the limitless potential of the self:
You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits (55).
Flight thus symbolizes the idea of the self as existing “everywhere at once across space and time” (59) and in particular beyond the bounds of the body—an association that is presumably all the more powerful for the novella’s readers, since flight itself is outside the realm of physical possibility for the unassisted human body.
The Flock
The Flock that Jonathan belongs to during his earthly life is a group of seagulls that spend their days flying near fishing boats and fighting for food scraps. They are uninterested in anything beyond this routine existence, and intolerant of anyone who seeks more; in this way, they symbolize collectivism and conformity, as well as any society that offers safety in numbers—“power in the Flock” (54)—in exchange for freedom. By contrast, the Flock that Jonathan encounters and joins in Part 2 teach and support one another in their technical learning and spiritual growth.
Heaven
Heaven is a prominent motif in Parts 2 and 3 of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. After a long life on Earth, Jonathan arrives in what he takes to be the afterlife—specifically, heaven. However, he soon finds that his flying is still subject to certain physical laws, which contradicts his idea of what heaven ought to be like. When he finally asks Chiang about this, Chiang explains that heaven, as Jonathan understands it, doesn’t exist: “Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect” (55). Heaven, in other words, is a state—specifically, one in which the individual fully recognizes their own limitless potential, which necessarily also involves recognizing the limitless potential of others.
This is why, towards the end of the novella, Jonathan praises Fletcher for “building his own heaven […] and leading the whole Flock in that direction” (92); Fletcher has not only realized his own nature, but has dedicated himself to helping his students do the same. This reworking of the religious idea of heaven into a state of self-transcendence and collective awareness is one of the ways in which Bach attempts to recover the fundamental teachings of religious leaders (most notably Jesus) as distinct from the way in which those religions have sometimes been practiced.
