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harshly punished by his parents. He was left all alone on the ledge starving for 24 hours. He
wouldn’t dare to fly. He cried with hunger. Mother took final decision to put before him bait. And
lo! It worked; he dived for a scrap of fish. Mother was high up in the sky and he was in the open
air falling down and down. He opened his wings and found himself flying. This was the way he
was taught to make his first flight. Hence, we can say parental encouragement and discipline play
a great role in shaping the destiny of the young children.

ANALYSIS
His First Flight by Liam O‟ Flaherty: Summary and Review

Here is a summary and review of His First Flight by Liam O‟ Flaherty, a magnificent story on the need for
courage and self-confidence.

„His First Flight‟ by Liam O‟ Flaherty is a true parableabout overcoming fears in life. Every journey of
a thousand miles begins with but a single step. But that single step is the most difficult one to make.
Conquer the fear and venture forth; and we realize that we were born with wings.

The young seagull looked down desperately at the vast expanse of sea that stretched down beneath his
ledge. He was hungry. His parents had flown away along with his brothers and his little sister, leaving him
alone on the rock without food. They could all fly; and he could not. He had tried several times to run
forward to the brink of the ledge and flap his wings but he became afraid. He was certain that his wings
would not support him. His parents had tried countless times to make him fly. But for the life of him he
would not make an attempt.

He felt that he was going to starve to death on his ledge. Even his mother was not looking at him. She
was tearing a piece of fish with her beak. The sight of food maddened him. He cried at her but she just
screamed back mockingly.

Suddenly, he felt the joy, seeing his mother approaching him with food. But she halted, keeping the fish
just out of his reach. Maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish. But his mother flew upward and he
started falling. A monstrous terror seized him, but the next moment he realized that he was flying. He was
born to fly and he had made his first flight.

Liam O‟ Flaherty was a keen observer of sea life and he believed that man has a lot to learn from
nature. He has given a humane touch to the seagull’s plight so that the reader is reminded of the
nervousness he too might experience before doing something new.

Themes:

„His First Flight‟ highlights the importance of independence, self-belief and confidence, and the need
for motivation to attain goals. Necessity is always the mother of invention, but it sometimes needs
an initial spark from outside.

The story is also a metaphorical assertion that everyone needs to be independent even while staying
involved in family life. But the joy of independence is not meant for cowards.

From an educator‟s point of view „His First Flight‟ shows how to tactfully impart motivation. The
parents of the seagull had tried to cajole and threaten him in different ways, but to no avail. The mother
knew well that the trick was to arouse his need and she eventually lures him out with food – to his
momentary horror and then great joy.

Bottom line: In fact, the mother seemed to be well aware of the Chinese proverb “Give a man a fish and
you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” And why, she might
have even heard of Franklin D. Roosevelt‟s maxim “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”