Dashalyn D. Diggs

Joy Priest

English 101

9 September 2016

Critical Analysis: Joyas Voladores by Brian Doyle: First Draft

The heart is essential to human life and most animal life and it gives all living things the chance to have different experiences. The heart can be a very strong thing, yet its vulnerability can get itself bruised and damaged. Joyas Voladores by Brian Doyle is one of his most famous works, and in this text, Doyle talks about the different characteristics of the heart, mainly its strength and vulnerability, and how it relates to the lives of humans and animals, using the hummingbird and blue whale for examples. Doyle also talks about the different ways that your life can be spent. Doyle uses imagery and metaphors/similes to express his thoughts and theme throughout the text.

“No living being is without interior liquid motion. We all churn inside” (Doyle 96). In a way, this statement speaks for itself. Doyle gives a clear image how all living things are similar. We all have the same things happening in our bodies. We are all made of the same elements, the same substances, whether we are humans, birds, whales, fish, bacteria, etc. We are all vulnerable beings. All things can be damaged, bruised, and broken. We all have the churning of blood through us that sustains and supports us, and it gives us the chance to experience life. 

Doyle uses metaphors of the heart in the text and how it relates to life, the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, “The Rollercoaster of Life” as many refer to it. Human beings put a metaphorical sense on the heart. It is often considered the container of your soul, your emotions, and your life. How one spends their life is up to them: 

“Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. 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 95)

One can spend their life doing wild and crazy things, living in the fast lane, flying for miles and miles without proper rest, causing stress on the soul, like a hummingbird, and live a shorter, more problematic life, or one can choose to live long and happy, like a tortoise, being aware of their vulnerability and taking in life slowly. 

“…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 96). Doyle basically shows in this statement that your heart will be damaged and broken at some point in your life, that it is inevitable and unavoidable. That damage can be repaired and your heart can be strengthened, but it will forever be vulnerable and sensitive, no matter how hard you try.

Joyas Voladores is a brief, yet very deep work of Doyle that talks about the heart’s strength and vulnerability, and how it being damaged throughout life is basically inevitable, and how the heart is the control center of your life, in a physical and/or metaphorical sense. The uses of imagery and metaphors all throughout the passage clearly and creatively illustrate the theme to the reader.

Doyle, Brian. "Joyas Voladores." 2016. The Carolina Reader: For English 101. N.p.: Hayden-McNeil, n.d. 94-96. Print.