Jonathan Livingston Seagull begins as a story about Jonathan’s quest to become the most perfect flier he can. In the process, he teaches himself several aerobatic maneuvers, but his goal is probably best encapsulated by his attempts at high-speed flying; after “set[ting] a world speed record for seagulls” (20) during a 90 mile per hour dive, Jonathan goes on to reach a speed of 214 miles per hour—terminal velocity, and thus the maximum speed possible for him on Earth. By maxing out in this way, Jonathan achieves a kind of perfection, although this does not stop him from continuing to learn and grow in other ways throughout his life:

He learned more each day. He learned that a streamlined high-speed dive could bring him to find the rare and tasty fish that schooled ten feet below the surface of the ocean […] He learned to sleep in the air, setting a course at night across the offshore wind, covering a hundred miles from sunset to sunrise (35-36).

Jonathan’s commitment to continuously transcend his prior limitations suggests that perfection is as much a process or state as it is a goal, and one that has more to do with self-growth than external boundaries or barriers.