Having a kid can be hard enough, but having a kid with a fatal heart condition is even worse. Brian Doyle finds himself in this situation with his own son, who has a three-chambered heart. The heart is a major organ to human life, but the figurative heart also plays a major role in a human’s mental health. Even though our physical heart is still working to keep us alive, our figurative heart, or emotions, can become hidden. In Joyas Volardores, Doyle uses multiple metaphors in order to illustrate what animals’ hearts have in common with the human experience.

The first metaphor Doyle uses to illustrate comparison is within the hummingbird.  He illustrates the size of the hummingbird realistically: “A hummingbird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser. A hummingbird’s heart is a lot of hummingbird” (94). Since the hummingbird’s heart is a large part of a hummingbird’s life, it relates to the figurative heart, or emotions, to be a big part human life. Doyle is trying to explain that the heart has a large influence on the way that humans live their lives. Even though they do not physically come from the heart, the emotions are a part of our brain’s function. Therefore, when one suffers emotionally, they can suffer physical consequences.

Doyle continues with another metaphors of the hummingbird relating it back to human life. He explores all of the talents a hummingbird has: “They fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest…But when they rest they come close to death” (95). Doyle is explaining how the hummingbird travels so fast and they barely stop to rest. This can relate back to a human’s life and how an individual goes through life. Doyle is trying to represent how fast-paced yet fragile a human’s life can be. He is explaining how an individual can be going and going due to all that life brings, but it can all end in an instant because of one action. This really puts into perspective how precious life can be to a human and how important it is to once and a while slow down to truly experience life. 

In the third paragraph, Doyle brings in another animal to equate human life too. He states that every creature has about two billion heartbeats in one lifetime to spend, however every creature uses them differently. Doyle compares the heartbeats within the life of a tortoise to the heartbeats within a hummingbird’s life, “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” (95). Doyle provides a metaphor within a metaphor: he compares the hummingbird against the tortoise as different metaphorical ways of living life. Although these representations can be subjective, Doyle’s point is to show that individuals really can chose how to live their life -busy and caught up like a hummingbird, or actually enjoying life and taking it slow like a tortoise. He is not saying one is a better lifestyle than the other, just that there are different lifestyles to live. 

One last metaphor Doyle brings up in his passage incorporates a blue whale and its heart. Doyle explains a blue whale’s heart, “weighs more than seven tons. It’s 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,” (95). This imagery is contrasted with the hummingbird’s small heart, which is the polar opposite of the intended imagery with the whale heart. Again, Doyle demonstrates a metaphor within a metaphor, but now with the blue whale. The sizes of these animal hearts contrasts those of humans. Each individual can go through life differently, either long like the blue whale or constant like the hummingbird. However, rushing through life can burn someone out faster, like what the hummingbird represents. 

In Brian Doyle’s passage, “Joyas Volardores”, he uses several metaphors to link connections between an animal’s heart and a human’s life. First, he explores a hummingbird’s heart and even though they have small hearts and short lives, a human’s life can end up being like that. Additionally, Doyle compares a hummingbird’s life and a tortoise’s life and how different they can be, but it can be a crucial decision in a human’s life. Lastly, he develops the idea of having different hearts can structure a person’s life by comparing a blue whale’s heart to the hummingbird’s heart. Between all of the different hearts, Doyle creates a point of choosing how to live life and how important it can be. The way an individual lives their life can be shaped by the emotional heart. 