Take a second to think about someone you really love. A significant other, a parent, a child, or maybe a friend. This loved one means the world to you and you cannot imagine what life would be like without them. They fill your heart with joy. Then, one day they tell you that you mean nothing to them, they never want to see you again. This is the feeling of your heart sinking, tied to an anchor and dropped to the depths of the ocean. In this reading Doyle displays his message through several different types of figurative analogies to assist the reader in figuring out his message. The word that was highlighted throughout the reading was “heart”. In fact the word was used thirty times in the reading, showing the importance of the word not only for the writer’s purpose in creating this reading, but also to the reader’s interpretation of the passage. Doyle uses the heart in this passage to symbolize the vulnerability and unity of every creature in the world. 

Doyle describes how the hummingbird becomes weak in a time of need and this directly reflects in the hummingbird’s heart becoming fragile. “But when they rest they come close to death: on frigid nights, or when they are starving, they retreat into torpor, their metabolic rate slowing to a fifteenth of their normal sleep rate, their hearts sludging nearly to a halt, barely beating, and if they are not soon warmed, if they do not soon find that which is sweet, their hearts grow cold, and they cease to be” (Doyle 95). Doyle describes how the heart is in direct correlation with how susceptible the hummingbird feels. This message that Doyle is presenting in this statement shows the vulnerability of the hummingbird and reflects how the heart seems to suffer when the hummingbird becomes vulnerable. “Each one visits a thousand flowers a day. They dive at sixty miles an hour. They can fly backwards. They can fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest” (Doyle 95). Doyle makes a point to show just how impressive the hummingbird really is. However, this ambitious little creature’s drive does not come without a price. “The price of their ambition is a life closer to death; they suffer more heart attacks and aneurysms and ruptures than any other living creature” (Doyle 95). Doyle goes on to explain how it is expensive to fly, you burn out and melt the engine. Doyle uses the hummingbird analogy well here because essentially he represents how the hummingbird’s passion leads to its vulnerability and ultimately its heart failing. Not only do small creatures such as the hummingbird feel vulnerable as a result of the hearts mind, but so do the largest creatures in the world.

Blue Whales, the animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs. “Their penetrating moaning cries and their piercing yearning tongue, can be heard underwater for miles and miles” (Doyle 96). Doyle is making a point to show how blue whales travel in pairs to seek comfort within themselves by having that connection with the blue whale that they travel with. Doyle goes on to elaborate that though the creature is so large and can easily defend itself, it feels a sense of vulnerability and how this vulnerability derives from a sense of security of the heart. Doyle expects the reader to make the connection of how similar to the hummingbird, the blue whale knows that in order for it to be truly happy, it has to defend its heart so that it can avoid feeling susceptible. Not only do animals experience this sense of vulnerability and weakness due to the hearts desires, but so do we as people. 

“We all churn inside” (Doyle 96). Doyle makes a significant transition here, going from describing animals and the heart, to making the reader and people in general a part of his message. Furthermore, he goes on to explain how though we open up to specific people, we will always “live alone in the house of the heart” (Doyle 96). Here, Doyle starts his development of the point he is trying to get across by describing how every creature in the animal kingdom ultimately does not truly open up to anyone. Doyle then describes how we do not really open up to anyone due to the fear of being hurt and becoming vulnerable. “When young we think there will come one person who will savor and sustain us always; when we are older we know this is the dream of a child, that 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). Here Doyle describes how as you become older and learn through experience, you come to realize that you will be beaten and torn down, your heart crushed. Furthermore, Doyle goes on to describe that regardless of how hard you try to defend your heart and protect yourself from becoming susceptible, you will always end up becoming vulnerable in the end.  

In conclusion, the heart in this passage symbolizes vulnerability and the unity of all creatures in the animal kingdom. The message that Doyle wants the reader to grasp is that what we do not consider is that when our heart finally feels full and happy, it can all get taken away from us in a heartbeat, leaving us feeling as helpless and susceptible as we ever have. Furthermore, Doyle describes this feeling as a feeling of vulnerability in which we look to subconsciously protect and this is why everyone has their own form of wall built up. Doyle talks about how these walls that we build are to protect us from getting hurt, from getting let down, and being left feeling, well vulnerable. Similar to the demilitarized zone in Korea, the heart is being guarded at all times to prevent experiencing this feeling of vulnerability. 
