Jonathan Livingston Seagull is the story of the title character, a seagull named Jonathan who dislikes fighting over food and prefers to perfect his powers of flight. Becoming estranged from seagull society, Jonathan finds a society of like-minded birds and eventually attains enlightenment with their help. This forms a metaphor for death, with Jonathan moving back and forth between his new idealized home and the world he left behind in order to help others make the journey.