Jonathan Livingston Seagull

In the years after Jonathan Livingston Seagull’s departure, the Flock becomes the “strangest bunch of birds that ha[ve] ever lived on earth.” Many of them begin to understand Jonathan’s message—or at least they think they do—and soon gulls practicing wild flight maneuvers become just as common as gulls who refuse to engage with Jonathan’s methods and continue flying straight and level out to the fishing boats for their food. 

Fletcher and Jonathan’s other pupils begin making missionary journeys to every flock on the coastline, spreading their instructor’s message of freedom and flight. Fletcher is heartened to realize that his pupils are not only free, but also accomplished in their flight maneuvers—many of Fletcher’s pupils become so talented and overcome their limits so perfectly that they shimmer and disappear from the face of the earth, just like Jonathan. It is a golden age of flight and innovation.

Fletcher becomes an icon in his own right, and gulls flock to him just for the chance to touch someone who once touched Jonathan Seagull—who has achieved divine status in the minds of many birds on earth. Fletcher tries to remind the others that Jonathan was a regular gull, just like them, but no one will listen to this message. The gulls continue begging for any tidbit of information they can get about the “Divine Gull Jonathan,” his words, and his time on earth. The new pupils want to imitate Jonathan’s every move precisely, and though Fletcher continually tries to remind the new recruits that all Jonathan wanted to pass on was the fact that gulls can fly, his flock becomes a cult of personality obsessed with Jonathan rather than a group of pupils training, studying, drawing strength from one another.

After a few years, hardly any flying is done at all—rather, gulls simply stand on the beach, reciting poems and histories about “the Divine One.” Fletcher and Jonathan’s other original pupils are puzzled, frightened, and even angry at the change, but are helpless to stop it. Jonathan’s original students have also become honored and revered, but no one really listens to them anymore. As one by one, the Original Students die, the Flock seizes upon their bodies and holds great ceremonies over them. Their burial sites become shrines where every gull who wishes for Oneness must drop a pebble and recite some words. No one really understands the concept of Oneness, but it is such a deep concept that anyone who asks about it is rendered a fool.

Fletcher is the last of the original flock to pass away, during a solitary session of beautiful flying. In the middle of a complex roll, his body vanishes, lost in the perfection of his own flight. As Fletcher leaves no body behind, the rest of the Flock is confused and upset when they realize their de facto leader has vanished. As the Flock comes together in mourning, they begin spinning a story of how the Gull Fletcher was last seen flanked by the other Seven First Students standing on the Rock of Oneness, and that the Great Gull Jonathan Livingston Seagull had descended from the sky dressed in opulent plumes and a crown of pebbles to call Gull Fletcher up to the Beach of Oneness. Fletcher had ascended, the Flock says, surrounded by holy rays and a chorus of gull voices singing.

The pile of pebbles on the Rock of Oneness, in commemoration of “Gull Fletcher,” grows enormous. Other piles are built in tribute, and Flocks all around the coastline gather weekly at these sites to listen to and recount the miracles of Jonathan Livingston Seagull and his Gifted Divine Students. Hardly any flying is done anymore, and strange trends and customs begin to crop up: more affluent birds carry branches in their beaks, and the longer the branch the better and more progressive a flier that bird is considered—even if he never flies at all.

Every Tuesday, all flying stops and recitations begin, and as the “sermons” become increasingly unintelligible, slurred speech and run-on sentences are eventually seen not as mistakes but marks of excellence. Images of Jonathan are pecked into the cliffs all along the coastline, and nearly two hundred years later, every element of Jonathan’s teaching is considered holy—and beyond the aspirations of common gulls.

Gulls who resist these changes—“thinking gulls”—begin instinctively closing their minds to any mention of Jonathan, purposefully flying routes that allow them to avoid the pebble-laden shrines that have sprung up in dedication to him and ignoring any mention of him. They experiment with flight, but refuse to call it “flight”—they decide they are simply “finding what’s true.” They reject the Students, but nonetheless become students themselves; in rejecting Jonathan’s name, they are actually practicing the original message he brought to the flock.

Some gulls begin questioning the things being taught at the shrines. A gull called Anthony Seagull realizes that all the gulls who come to the shrines each Tuesday and drop a pebble do so in hopes of becoming holy—or otherwise simply because everyone expects them to be there. Gulls like Anthony know there is something to be learned from Jonathan’s legacy, but do not know what that is. Anthony begins questioning whether the “Great Gull Jonathan” ever even existed, or performed the “miracles” of flight he is proclaimed to have achieved. He sees the story of Jonathan as a “fairy tale.” Anthony decides that he will not listen to what the Officials have to say until he can see a bird demonstrate one of Jonathan’s feats—for instance, reaching a speed of two hundred miles per hour.

Many other gulls go the way of Anthony—they reject the ritual and ceremony of Jonathan Seagull, and begin to believe that life is futile. One morning, flying along the sea and contemplating the meaninglessness of life, Anthony decides to die—he sees no reason to prolong his boring life. He heads up to a height of two thousand feet and then dives straight toward the water. Halfway through his dive, he is aware of  another seagull passing him in flight. Anthony brakes, and attempts to get a better look at the blur which has passed him by. The blur pulls out of its own dive and completes a long vertical slow roll, and Anthony is amazed by the gull’s impressive display. He calls to the other bird, asking it to wait for him to catch up. 

The gull turns back toward Anthony and apologizes for startling him. Anthony expresses his admiration of the bird’s flight, but the demure bird insists he was “just messing around.” The other bird offers to help teach him how to do such a maneuver. Anthony asks the bird his name. The bird tells Anthony to call him “Jon.”