It felt like being hit with a board. His knees went weak, his feathers sagged, there was roaring in his ears. Centered for shame> Impossible! The Breakthrough! They can't understand! They're wrong, they're wrong!

'...for his reckless irresponsibility ,' the solemn voice intoned, 'violating the dignity and tradition of the Gull Family...'

To be centered for shame meant that he would be cast out of gull society, banished to a solitary life on the Far Cliff.

'...one day, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, you shall learn that irresponsibility does not pay. Life is the unknown and the unknowable, except that we are put into this world to eat, to stay alive as long as we possibly can.'

A seagull never speaks back to the Council Flock, but it was Jonathan's voice raised. 'Irresponsibility? My brothers!' he cried/ 'Who is more responsible than a gull who finds and follows a meaning, a higher purpose for life? For a thousand years we have scrabbled after fish heads, but now we have a reason to live -- to learn, to discover, to be free! Give me one chance, let me show you what I've found... '

The Flock might as well have been stone.

'The Brotherhood is broken,' the gulls intoned together, and with one accord they solemnly closed their ears and turned their backs upon him.

To me, this book symbolizes being free and doing what you have always wanted to, not like what others have always done.