Jonathan Livingston Seagull (Jon)

The book's protagonist, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, first appears as a freethinking young gull, not content with filling his belly with scrap fish. He wants to experience the freedom of flight enjoyed by other bird species. Opposed by everyone, including his own family, Jonathan experiments, often disastrously, until he figures out the dynamics of flight and practices its techniques to perfection. Hoping to share these revelations with others, Jonathan is surprised to be condemned for unorthodoxy by the Elders and exiled to the Far Cliffs. He further refines his flying abilities during a long, solitary but satisfying life, lamenting only that he has not been able to share the truth with others. Two shining gulls appear to him in old age, offering to take him to new heights and a new home. In "heaven," Jonathan learns from a mentor, Sullivan, that he is a rare gull...