Through out the world there are hundreds of living organisms that must eat and breath in order to sustain life. Each organism will vary in a million different ways, some will have feathers, others scales. There are several organisms, such as birds that have evolved to have the ability to fly through the air, while other organisms, such as fish, have evolved to breath under water. Despite these genetic differences, all living organisms will share one quality:  a heart. Regardless the size of the organism, the type, the age, or the environment that the organism lives in, they will all have a beating heart. This heart, a living organ, is what is responsible for the circulation of blood and other nutrients through out the organism, which in tern causes the body become fluid and ever changing. In Brian Doyle's essay, "Joyas Volardores," he explores the hearts of various organisms through the rhetorical devices of strategic word organization, the comparison between two objects, and the use of personified imagery to to make his piece come alive, in order to convey the image of a beating, living heart where every organism has an ability to love.

In this piece, Doyle first starts off his essay by speaking about numerous characteristics that make up a hummingbird's heart. When writing, he uses phrases such as, "a hummingbird's heart beats ten times a second," "a hummingbird's heart is the size of a pencil eraser," and "a hummingbird's heart is a lot of the hummingbird," (Doyle 64) in an organized, yet repetitive manor, to emphasize the importance of the bird's heart by bringing up this similar sentence structure multiple times within one paragraph. He continues this technique later on in the essay when he says, "they can drive ," "they can fly backward ,"and "they can fly more than " (Doyle 65). The monotones tone of Doyle's writing almost makes the reader feel like the can hear the physical beating of the bird's heart as the phrases are repeated. This helps the reader to see more clearly and understand the birds heart, how it works, how it reacts, and how it functions. Also when speaking of organizational techniques, when analyzing this passage, the reader might notice the order in which Doyle has presented the information in his essay. When speaking of organization, Doyle started out with a small organism's heart, specifically a hummingbird, then finished his essay by speaking about the human heart. This strategic organizational strategy allowed Doyle to speak of how the heart works in other animals so that once he spoke of the human heart, the story would then become personal to the reader, so that it could influence the emotions of the reader.

When speaking of the different animals in this piece, Doyle does not simply describe the animal's characteristics with simple descriptions. He writes about the beating patterns the animal hearts when he writes and says, "you can spend them slowly like a tortoise or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird" (Doyle 65). In this sentence, Doyle is comparing the speeds of the two animal hearts, which allows the reader to understand that even though both animal's hearts beat at different rates, they will beat almost the same number of times in the animal's life times. This is said so that the reader first starts to see how the animal's hearts will develop over time, and also shows how the heart will evolve and experience differences, but yet end up with the same outcome. Doyle continues to use examples of comparison in his text when he compares the structure of a heart to a house, he says, "the valves are as big as the swinging doors in a saloon this house of a heart drives a creature a hundred feet long" (Doyle 65). When using this house comparison, Doyle is comparing the layout and strength of a heart to a house so that the reader can develop a sense of how strong and large a heart can be. These two examples help to bring the heart alive because it allows the reader to more realistically see how the heart is so much like a living creature.

Doyle in a since was able to make this piece come to life through his strategic use of personified imagery. Through out this essay when Doyle described the hearts of organisms, he described them in a way that they would come alive to the reader. In the beginning of his writing, Doyle chose to start out with phrases such as, " gulp more oxygen," " search for food," and "stripped to the skin ," to allow the reader to mentally picture how the hummingbird heart is truly alive, how it takes in oxygen, and how it retrieves nutrients. He carries this thought of personified imagery out through the whole essay and later this imagery pops up when Doyle writes that hearts are, " eternally in motion, washing from side to side swirling, whirling," and when he says that, " we all churn inside" (Doyle 66). Doyle's specific word choice allows the reader to picture the hearts, swirling and whirling inside, so that the reader pictures the churning motion of the heart, allowing the reader to see that the heart is in fact alive and it is in motion. Finally, at the end of his essay, Doyle uses phrases such as, "so much held in a lifetime so much held in a day, an hour, in a moment" (Doyle 66), to show the reader the final living outcome that the heart must bear:  heartbreak. Doyle has not only proved to the reader that the hearts of all organisms are living, but he has also showed the reader that not all hearts will get to purely experience love in their lifetime.

In the essay, "Joyas Volardores," Brian Doyle attempts to bring a live the image of the heart in organisms through the use of strategically organized sentences, through the comparison of the heart to other living objects, and through the use of imagery that is personified so that he can portray the image of a living, breathing heart. All through out this essay, Doyle is attempts to use rhetorical devices to make the heart come alive so that the reader can understand how it looks, how it is organized, and most importantly, how it is alive and that is can experience emotion. In the final portion of this essay, Doyle uncovers the importance of having an open heart, and that blocking up one's heart will only cause a person to live an unhappy life. Doyle attempts to make the heart seem vividly living through out his essay so that he can play on the emotions of the reader and in doing this, Doyle wants the readers to realize that the heart must first endure the unpleasant events of the world, before they can experience the good qualities of life such as excitement, joy, friendship, and most importantly, love. According to Doyle, simply blocking out the hatred of the world will cause a person to block out the beauties of the world.

