What are Seagulls?

Seagulls factor into the story “The Seagull Army Descends on Long Beach, 1979,” and symbolize not only nature of the natural world, but the disruption of order among the human population. Great flocks of seagulls descend on the town of Athertown on the shore in numbers never recorded anywhere in written history. The seagulls awaken the natural urges and inclinations for survival and dominance in Nal, where they come to represent the true nature of life in struggle and survival of the fittest. Nal mimics the thievery of the seagulls in his stealing of Vanessa, and mimics their swirling motions while he has sex with Vanessa.