Jonathan Livingston Seagull By Richard David Bach

Author, Richard David Bach Born in the year 1936 in Oak Park, Illinois. Said to be related to Johann Sebastian Bach, a well-known German composer He attended Long Beach State College (California State University, Long Beach) in Since he was 17 years old, he pursued flying as an interest. Bach married Bette Franks and had six children. (One is named Jonathan) Divorced and remarried, currently married to Sabryna Nelson- Alexopoulos.

Richard David Bach United States Air Force (USAF) as a jet pilot. Afterwards, he worked a variety of jobs, including Technical writer for Douglas Aircraft and contributing editor for Flying magazine. He served in the USAF He served as a reserve deployed in France in He later became a barnstormer/stunt pilot. Most of his books involve flight in some way. Jonathan Livingston Seagull was published in 1970 and was a best- seller. It was adapted into a movie in 1973.

The Plane Crash In the year 2012 (August), he was severely injured because his aircraft clipped some power lines and crashed upside down when landing at Friday Harbor. He was hospitalized for four months and eventually discharged. Because of his near-death experience, he got inspired to finish the fourth part of his book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which was originally published in only three parts.

Facts about the book It was first published in 1970 as "Jonathan Livingston Seagull — a story." By the end of 1972, over a million copies were in print, Reader's Digest had published a condensed version, and the book had reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list, where it remained for 38 weeks. In 1972 and 1973, the book topped the Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States. In 2014 the book was reissued as Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition, which added a 17-page fourth part to the story.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull Protagonist is Jonathan Livingston Seagull- Jonathan is a rebellious seagull who wants to live life by flying as fast as he can. He does not want to be like other gulls who spend their time following boats to find fish to eat. The antagonist of this story isn’t really a single individual character, but a group of many. The group is the flock of birds that made Jonathan an outcast when he refused to live a simple life of just “getting by”.

Characters Old Chiang is wise and mystical. Fletcher Lynd Seagull is young and eager to learn about flying. Sullivan Seagull Jonathan’s instructor who teaches him about transcending through lives by learning. Martin William Seagull is a cripple who overcomes his handicap through the power of his mind and learns to fly. The Council Flock The governing body of the seagull Flock, the unchallengeable Council Flock condemns Jonathan for reckless irresponsibility and violating the dignity and tradition of the Gull Family after his historic aeronautic flight. It exiles the new Outcast to the Far Cliffs.

Settings The Council Beach The area where the Council Flock deliberates and condemns Jonathan to exile for his experiments in aerodynamics is called the Council Beach. On this beach, Jonathan, returned from heaven to gather and teach Outlaw disciples, vindicates his teachings and begins proclaiming his message of the gulls' freedom to be more than the rulers allow them to be. The Far Cliffs The traditional place of exile for Outcasts from the Flock, the Far Cliffs lie west of Council Beach and are where Jonathan gathers his first six followers. The Fishing Grounds The offshore waters where the Flock mass at meal times to scavenge for fish. The Sky Where Jonathan feels free to be himself.

Fable Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized (given human qualities, such as verbal communication) and that illustrates or leads to an interpretation of a moral lesson (a "moral).

Themes Following your dreams Forgiveness, kindness, and peace Love of learning Personal freedom Giving back to future generations Nature as an escape Individualism Reaching God through

Transcendentalism A loose collection of eclectic ideas. (About literature, philosophy, religion, social reform, and the general state of American culture.) An idealistic philosophy, spiritual position, and literary movement that advocates reliance on romantic intuition and moral human conscience. A belief that humans can intuitively transcend (go above) the limits of the senses and of logic to a plane of “higher truths.” Something different for each person involved in the movement.

Beliefs The intuitive faculty (instinct), instead of the rational or logical, became the means for a conscious union of the individual soul to the world around it. Value spirituality (direct access to a benevolent God, not organized religion or ritual), divinity of humanity, nature, intellectual pursuits, and social justice.

Divine Soul or Over Soul Man, universe, and nature are intertwined, thus an individual is the spiritual center of the universe, and in an individual can be found the clue to nature, history and, ultimately, the cosmos itself. The transcendentalists also believed that all people possessed a piece of the "Over-soul" (God)

Nature Transcendentalists accepted the concept of nature as a living mystery, full of signs; nature is symbolic –a guide to higher understanding. Open yourself to nature.

Self Reliance A core belief was in the inherent goodness of both people and nature. Transcendentalists believed that society and its institutions ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual, and had faith that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent.