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Janet's Reviews > Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
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"Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight--how to get from shore to food and back again," writes author Richard Bach in this allegory about a unique bird named Jonathan Livingston Seagull. "For most gulls it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight."
Flight is indeed the metaphor that makes the story soar. Ultimately this is a fable about the importance of seeking a higher purpose in life, even if your flock, tribe, or neighborhood finds your ambition threatening. (At one point our beloved gull is even banished from his flock.) By not compromising his higher vision, Jonathan gets the ultimate payoff: transcendence. Ultimately, he learns the meaning of love and kindness.
I read this book when I was a teenager, it set the stage for a life of searching for a higher purpose and today, almost 40 years later, my life is heaven on earth.
In Abraham Lincoln's words...
"All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind." Abraham Lincoln
And M. Scott Peck's words...
"Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience -- to appreciate the fact that life is complex." M. Scott Peck
Flight is indeed the metaphor that makes the story soar. Ultimately this is a fable about the importance of seeking a higher purpose in life, even if your flock, tribe, or neighborhood finds your ambition threatening. (At one point our beloved gull is even banished from his flock.) By not compromising his higher vision, Jonathan gets the ultimate payoff: transcendence. Ultimately, he learns the meaning of love and kindness.
I read this book when I was a teenager, it set the stage for a life of searching for a higher purpose and today, almost 40 years later, my life is heaven on earth.
In Abraham Lincoln's words...
"All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind." Abraham Lincoln
And M. Scott Peck's words...
"Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience -- to appreciate the fact that life is complex." M. Scott Peck
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
March 8, 2008
– Shelved
March 8, 2008
– Shelved as:
life
March 10, 2008
– Shelved as:
spirituality
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Thank You! I related to this book as a teenager that never quite fit in. I was able to transcend my worries and understand that I could soar despite my differences.
I read this book as a pre-teen; it was the first, non-children's book I ever read and I loved it. It inspired me to dream, to reach for the stars and made me want to achieve my dreams. I felt it was magical and I felt I was flying right along with Jonathan and together we went soaring.
I'm shocked by some of the reviews that find so much to dislike - readers can suspend their disbelief for a boy forced to live under that stairs that then is magically transported to a school for wizards, or a boy who never grows up and loves to fly, but not a seagull who loves the pleasure of flying? Come on people, just enjoy the story for what it is, dreaming and flying! Harry Potter doesn't "fit in" the real world, Peter Pan doesn't "fit in" the real world, so why fault a story about a seagull for not "fitting in" in the real world - all these stories have in common a character that does "not fit into the real world" and they find or seek a world in which they do fit in and we love them for it. As an aside, in my book "Peter and the Band of Pirates" a Peter Pan prequel, "Peter" does fit in the real world quite naturally and like most kids he just wants to explore, discover the world around him and wishes he could fly like a bird... "oh, such fun!"
Thanks.