Jonathan Livingston Seagull is especially notable for eliciting in the reader an optimistic vision of life. The story collects the many socially important themes into a fable of values appropriate to audiences from junior high school onward.

In one sense, Jonathan Livingston Seagull portrays an antisocial individualism that eventually contributes to society. Jonathan's progress toward perfection begins only when he is ostracized from the flock. He lives then as an airborne hermit until he meets with the supersociety, an elite flock of gulls who, like Jonathan, concentrate on perfect speed. Jonathan finally returns to the flock to teach other gulls what he has learned.

Individuals, according to the book, are ultimately immortal ideas inhabiting an illusory physical universe designed to let them work at becoming perfect. They will find true companionship in heaven; earthly society is merely a means of attaining heaven. Jonathan's return to help...