
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 passage, “Joyas Volardores”, written by Brian Doyle, Doyle uses very specific examples of the heart of animals to convey the symbolic message about the heart and its vulnerability. He displays his message through several different types of figurative analogies. The word that was highlighted several times 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 passage, but also to the reader’s interpretation of the passage. Doyle uses “heart” in this passage to symbolize the vulnerability and unity of every creature in the world. 

Doyle uses the heart in the beginning of this passage to symbolize how the hummingbird becomes weak in a time of need and this directly reflects in the hummingbird’s heart becoming fragile. “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. The symbolic relationship here between the heart and the vulnerability of the hummingbird demonstrates that even the heart of this stout little creature falls short at times. Additionally, the heart of this hummingbird symbolizes weakness in time of need.  

“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. The symbolic relationship represented in the opening paragraph of Doyle’s argument regarding the hummingbird and it’s heart illustrates how fragile and vulnerable a strong-willed mammal such as the hummingbird can become when faced with adversity, and how the heart is symbolic of the pain and suffering the hummingbird is going through. 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.

Even blue whales, the animals with the largest hearts in the world, yearn for something and the heart symbolizes this need for companionship. “The animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs” (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. Through this symbolic relation between the massive heart of a blue whale and its sense of insecurity, it is evident that the heart cries for attention and a feeling of need. 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. 

The symbolic relationship between the heart and vulnerability does not only apply to animals, humans and all creatures in the animal kingdom are exploited through the heart. “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. This example illustrates how the heart is a symbol of vulnerability for every creature in the animal kingdom. 

“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. The symbolic relationship between the heart and the vulnerability of all creatures in the animal kingdom is strongly supported in Doyle’s closing paragraph. Additionally, Doyle illustrates how the heart can never truly be defended, regardless of the effort in protecting the heart, it will be vulnerable again, defining the symbolic relationship between the heart and vulnerability of all creatures and how the heart symbolizes unity amongst all creatures in the animal kingdom through this suffering. 

In conclusion, the heart in this passage symbolizes vulnerability and the unity of all creatures in the animal kingdom. Doyle wants the reader to grasp that what we do not consider is 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 and this symbolism unites the animal kingdom through one beating heart. 
