Jonathan Livingston Seagull:
Part One Discussion Guide

To the real Jonathan Seagull, who lives within us all.
(Word Download)  

Discussion Director:

Answer the following questions.

1.  What did Jonathan love more than anything else (p. 14)?

 

 

2.  What did his father tell him to study (p. 15)?

 

 

3.  What was the ÔbreakthroughÓ (p. 26)?

 

 

4.  Why was Jonathan cast out of the flock (p. 34-35)?

 

 

5. According to Jonathan, why is a gullÕs life so short (p. 36)?

 

 

6.  Where did Jonathan go at the end of Part One (p. 47)?

 

 

 Word Wizard:

Look at each vocabulary word and read how it was used in the story.  Based on the context of the sentence, write a guess for what do you think the word means.  Then use a thesaurus to help you to find a synonym for the word.  Write down the synonym.

 

1.  dismayed (14) - Even his parents were dismayed as Jonathan spent whole days alone, making hundreds of low-level glides, experimenting.

 

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2.  altitude (14) - He didn't know why, for instance, but when he flew at altitudes less than half his wingspan above the water, he could stay in the air longer, with less effort.

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3.  obediently (15) - Jonathan nodded obediently.

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4.  deliberately (15) - It's all so pointless, he thought, deliberately dropping a hard-won anchovy to a hungry old gull chasing him.

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5.  stable (20) - From 2000 feet he tried again, rolling into his dive, beak straight down, wings full out and stable from the moment he passed fifty miles per hour.

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6.  vowed (21) -The place for a seagull at night is on shore, and from this moment forth, he vowed, he would be a normal gull.

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7.  resolutions (24) - His pain, his resolutions, vanished.

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8.  aerobatics (27) - ... and Jonathan had flown the first aerobatics of any seagull on earth.

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9.  solitude (35) - His one sorrow was not solitude, it was that other gulls refused to believe the glory of flight that awaited them; they refused to open their eyes and see.

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Literary Luminary:

PHILOSOPHY comes from the Greek word meaning "love of wisdom." It is the study of beliefs and values; a system for guiding life. As we gain wisdom about life and insight into its meaning, we begin to develop our own philosophy of life.

 

In Richard Bach's story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the author presents his philosophy of life. He uses a literary device called symbolism to get his main points across. A symbol is something that represents or stands for an abstract idea.

QUESTIONS: ( Think before you answer! )

1. Use the Venn diagram  on the next page to show the similarities and differences between the philosophy of the flock and the philosophy of Jonathan.

 

 

       Jonathan                                         Flock

 

2. Richard Bach tells us his philosophy of life through the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.  Do you think he agrees with Jonathan or with the flock?  Explain your answer in a well-written paragraph.

 

 

 

 

 

3. What do the seagulls symbolize?   EXPLAIN.

 

 

 

 

 

4. What is FREEDOM?

 

 

 

 

 

5. What is used to symbolized FREEDOM in the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull ?

 

Creative Connector:

 

1. What is the difference between conformity and cooperation?

conformity - fitting oneself and one's actions to the ideas of others.

cooperation - working together willingly in order to produce a desired result.

 

 

 

2. What is something you would like to achieve this year? Set an individual goal for your personal voyage of self-discovery in this area.