
450, 275, 192, 90, 60, 30, what do all these numbers stand for? Every number listed can be used to describe one thing: the number of heart beats per minute for a variety of creatures, from hamsters to elephants to humans. In a text written by Brian Doyle, “Joyas Volardores”, Doyle conveys the argument for unity by vulnerability throughout the kingdom or at least the Kingdom Animalia. Doyle gets his point across by using repetition. Not the reputation of a word or a phrase, but the repetition of species, all different types, but species none the less. 

 The hummingbird is one of the smallest birds in the world. They fly so fast and they are so small that sometimes they are difficult to even see. Brian Doyle uses the hummingbird as his first species in his text to represent how fragile this tiny bird’s heart really is. Hummingbirds fly, on average, at 60mph and they are able to travel for up to 500 miles without stopping, but living this fast paced lifestyle is dangerous. In the case of the hummingbird its vulnerability isn’t in its emotions, but it’s in the actual anatomy of its heart.  They have hearts the size of a pencil eraser, hearts that grow cold when at rest (Doyle 94-95). Their hearts cause them to suffer more heart attacks and aneurisms than any other creature, but that doesn’t stop them from their life in the fast lane. Doyle says “The price of their ambition is a life closer to death;” (Doyle 95) this is like some people. There is a reason that the saying “stop and smell the roses” exists and that’s because some people go, go, go and never stop, like a hummingbird. But the hummingbird here is being used to show that no matter how fast you move, some day it’s going to catch up with you. “You burn out. You fry the machine. You melt the engine” (Doyle 95) The anatomy of the hummingbird’s heart makes this bird fast paced, but it also makes them fast to die. But not all vulnerability comes from anatomy; some reasons for vulnerability aren’t scientific or physical at all.   

 The hummingbirds heart is so small and fragile, so to further the point of unity amongst a species by vulnerability Doyle picks a second species with an entirely different anatomy of the heart: the blue whale. Unlike the hummingbird, the blue whale’s vulnerability wasn’t in its anatomy but instead its emotions. Blue whales have hearts the size of rooms. Could you imagine just a pencil eraser lying on the ground of the room you’re in with nothing else around? That’s how a blue whales heart would look like next to a hummingbird’s. But Doyle’s mention of the blue whale wasn’t just to contrast the heart’s anatomy; he also wanted to point out how emotional blue whales are thought to be. This big-hearted animal has “penetrating moaning cries, their piercing yearning tongue can be heard for miles and miles” (Doyle 96). Blue whales have a large heart in two senses: it is large physically and large emotionally. It is vulnerable because it feels so much. They travel in pairs, cry for one another, and they don’t just cry to themselves, but they cry so loud that other animals miles and miles away are affected by their yearning. The hummingbird and the blue whale aren’t unified by living a similar life style or by looking the same; they are unified by their fragility. Two completely different animals yet both of their hearts are vulnerable to life’s games, life’s plans, and life’s mysterious ways. If these two entirely different animals can be unified why can’t they all? 

 Doyle doesn’t stop with just two animals. His point could have been made with just those two completely opposite creatures, but instead he tells us how mammals, reptiles, fish, insects, worms, and even unicellular creatures can be united. All of these creatures have a different number of chambers in their hearts; some have four, three, two, one, or even none. But one thing doesn’t change throughout them all, and that is that no creature is without liquid movement in them. Doyle says, “We all churn inside” (Doyle 96). He wrote “We all”, not “they all”, but “we all”. Doyle brings the species we are most familiar with into the text: humans. We, like all these species, are united because we all are vulnerable. Like hummingbird’s, humans are known to have heart issues and like blue whales we are known for our emotions. “We are utterly open with no one in the end-” (Doyle 96). With this statement Doyle is stating how humans are raised thinking that we will find this one person who we will let into our hearts and they will keep us from the pain. But as we grow we learn that that’s not just how it works. We open ourselves up, we become vulnerable, and a lot of times are heart gets ripped in half… metaphorically. We try and build walls up around our hearts to protect them and we try and say that we aren’t fragile, but in the end somehow, some way, those walls get ripped down and we again become just as vulnerable as the hummingbird and as the blue whale, just as vulnerable as every species because no matter what we all churn inside.

Throughout Doyle’s text species are used. He uses different species to show how they all connect through their vulnerable nature. Hummingbirds spend their whole life flying around, doing their job as fast as possible and they die because their little hearts can’t stop. They just go, go, go, until there is nothing left because they are vulnerable. Blue whales they spend their whole life with other whales and when they lose each other they cry and they cry because it’s too much and they are vulnerable. Humans, we spend our whole life trying to save ourselves. We try to stay healthy, we try and guard our feelings, but one day our dog dies, one day we fall in love, one day we have a freak accident and we are laying on our death bed because we like every other species we are vulnerable. Like Doyle said “we all churn inside” there is no stopping it, it’s just the way the world works, every living being is going through the motions inside, they’re just living just like we are just living open to the world and more vulnerable than ever. 
