Brian Doyle in his essay, Joyas Voladores, uses symbolism to represent the heart of humans and to show we should not to be afraid to love and should strive to live a fulfilled life. Although he does not directly say this it is implied in his choice of metaphors and tone. In the beginning of the story Doyle discusses the hearts and lives of humming birds, tortoises and whales. At first the reader may not see this deeper meaning. However, the last paragraph makes the story more clear by bringing in humans. Because of this we see the symbolism of the animals discussed. Hence, the reader is forced to look at how we love and live from a different perspective. By looking at Joyas Voladores, we can see Brian Doyle repeatedly uses animal metaphors about love and life of humans, this is important because Brian Doyle is using the animals to show that we as humans do not need to make love and life so complicated and could live more simply and happily like animals do.

The metaphor of the heart as a house gives a new perspective on humans approach to love. Doyle uses the house to demonstrate that humans are afraid to let people into our hearts.  He says, "We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart." (Doyle 66) It is interesting that Doyle chooses to say windows instead of doors. Doors allow people to enter while windows only let someone look in. We as humans are so nervous of being broken that we sometimes block ourselves from connections. He goes on to say, "All hearts finally are bruised and scarred, scored and torn, repaired by time and will, patched by force of character, yet fragile and rickety forevermore, no matter how ferocious the defense and how many bricks you bring to the wall." (Doyle 66) Like a house a heart will inevitably experience damage. Doyle shows however that both have the ability to recover. He demonstrates that no matter what our hearts will be broken. By saying this I think he is encouraging us to not to be afraid and not to hold back from life due to a fear a broken heart because no matter what it will happen. The analogy of the house helps the reader see that the heart is strong.  Everyone knows that houses experience damage but that does mean the house is no longer livable. Doyle uses the reader's basic knowledge to give a new perspective on love.

Doyle continues to offer a new perspective on the way humans love by looking at the heart and the life of a whale. The hearts of whales are "as big as a room. It is a room, with four chambers. A child could walk around it, head high, bending only to step through the valves. The valves are as big as the swinging doors in a saloon." (Doyle 66) Unlike Doyle's description of the human heart the heart of the whale is open. A human only has windows, while a whale has doors. This is why whales naturally always travel in pairs while humans are nervous to connect to other humans. The narrator contends, whales "penetrating moaning cries, their piercing yearning tongue, can be heard underwater for miles and miles." (Doyle 66) Here, Doyle shows that whales do suffer from having an open heart. By including this description of the cries of the whales after praising their open hearts he wants to show this does not mean the whales are perfect. I think Doyle wants to demonstrate that love does hurt sometimes but we still live on. 

The hummingbird is used to represent those who live a busy life but face the stress from doing so. Hummingbirds are very impressive as the text demonstrates, "Each one visits a thousand flowers a day. They can dive sixty miles an hour. They can fly backwards. They can fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest" (Doyle 65), by doing all of this they help our environment. The labor of hummingbirds pollinates flowers benefiting everyone. However, all of their hard work puts a lot of burden on their bodies. Brian Doyle informs the reader that hummingbirds, " suffer more heart attacks and aneurysms and ruptures than any other creature" (Doyle 65). I think Doyle wants the reader to know that although hummingbirds have many great features they are not perfect. In fact, it is their extraordinary work that ultimately fails them. 

The tortoise is the opposite of the hummingbird. Tortoises cannot fly nor can they be fast. Furthermore, although tortoises are special they do not contribute to the overall eco system as much as the hummingbirds. Doyle uses the tortoise to make a comparison to the hardworking hummingbird. He states, "Every creature on this earth has approximately two billion heart beats to spend in a lifetime." (Doyle 65) He points out that everyone and everything only has so much time on this earth and it is up to the individual to decide how to spend it. Our time on earth is counted by heartbeats, he says again, "You can spend them slowly like a tortoise, and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird, and live to be two years old." (Doyle 65) Tortoises may not have the extraordinary features of humming birds but they do live for hundreds of years longer. 

The tortoise and hummingbird represent the different types of lifestyles we as humans can choose. The hummingbird symbolizes people who are hardworking and busy. Hence, the narrator describes them as "whirring and zooming and nectaring in hummer time zones nine times removed from ours," (Doyle 65) This description shows the impressiveness of the humming bird lifestyle. The tortoise represents someone who chooses to live a much more relaxed lifestyle and is simply described as "slow". We see these different types of people everyday. There are the go-getters and the go with the flow people. I believe that this short story is encouraging the "hummingbird" type of person. Brian Doyle goes into great detail on the hummingbirds but merely mentions tortoises.  When speaking of the hummingbirds he alternates between parts of short sentences and then long. This grabs the reader's attention and makes the reading sound energetic. He also uses strong adjectives for example, "Hummingbirds are like all flying birds but more so, have incredible enormous immense ferocious metabolisms. To drive those metabolisms they have race-car hearts that eat oxygen at an eye-popping rate." (Doyle 65) This word choice shows the importance he feels towards the hummingbirds. The strong adjectives and metaphors allow the reader to visualize what they are reading. Words like "incredible" shows Doyle is impressed by the hummingbird and hence favors the fast paced lifestyle.

It is also interesting that Brian Doyle chose Joyas Voladores as the title of this short story. As he points out in the first paragraph Joyas Voladores is the name that the explorers gave hummingbirds. It stands for flying jewels. This name I think perfectly fits hummingbirds because they are precious but fragile. Because I also think that hummingbirds were a symbol for people I think Brian Doyle is implying we as humans are similarly flying jewels. We all have our own talents. Most of us fly through life. But we are all also fragile and fear being broken. Since we are all so fragile we must strive to be great as much as we can like the hummingbird. 

