

Brian Doyle titles his short story Joyas Volardores based on what the first white explorers called the humming bird- a flying jewel. This title also encompasses the multiple other meanings of the story. While it mainly represents the humming bird there are multiple other “jewels” that Doyle talks about. Some of them are the uniqueness of all animal hearts, mostly a whale’s, and a hummingbird. He also focuses on love and falling in love.  Also in this short story there is a jump from one aspect of the story, animals and their heart beats, to another aspect of the story, humans and how they fall in love. Both of these ideas are related to hearts and the idea of “jewels” but the jump the author makes is very interesting, sudden and not excepted. In looking at Joyas Volardores one can see imagery which personifies inanimate objects, this is significant because it ties together the theme of love, hearts and jewels presented in the title and throughout the short story. 

Joyas Volardores means “flying jewel” (94 Doyle) in Spanish. This name was given to the humming birds by the first white men who saw the humming birds when they landed in America. The description of a humming bird is very interesting. Instead of calling them some type of bird, the Spanish called them flying jewels. This is because of their bright colors and fast flying. They looked like jewels soring through the skies to the Spanish. Jewels however, can’t fly they are objects. The uniqueness of the bird, the fact that jewels were hard to find and so were humming birds all lead to the Spanish calling the birds jewels. Not only had the Spanish never seen a humming bird before, but they flew so fast it was very hard to get a good glimpse of them when they did see them. All of these aspects lead to the naming of such an incredible and exceptional bird. 

However, Joyas Volardores, the title, is oddly used in this story. There is only one line of description about the title and it is only in the part about the humming bird. And while most of the story is about humming birds and their beauty, the title surely is meant to encompass the whole story. The title could also be talking about the beating hearts that Doyle describes, and other things that could be compared to jewels. Not only do the humming birds represent flying jewels but all creatures that fly could be like this. All unique things in the world could be flying jewels. Doyle uses this as his title because he is showing that all animals and humans and their body parts are unique just like Jewels. Not one jewel is the same and not one creature is the same. By naming his piece this he is trying to show that not only humming birds are unique. There are many unique things in this world. 

Doyle talks about the beauty and uniqueness of  three species- humans, humming birds and whales. Each is different yet each is similar. They are different in shape, size, the way they fall in love, and how they are described by the author. They are similar in that they each have a beating heart and they each fall in love or find a mate at some point in their lives. However, they are vastly different as the same time. 

Brian Doyle specifically describes the different aspects of humming birds, and whales. Each has a heart, but they are different sizes and function in different ways. “Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime.” (95)  Doyle says that a humming bird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser, a whale’s heart is the size of room. “It weighs more than seven tons. It is as big as a room.” (95)  Doyle use pencil erasers and a room to describe the hearts of these animals. Pencil erasers and rooms are everyday boring objects, but the author choses to use them to describe the animal’s hearts. There is nothing exceptional about a pencil eraser or a room, but they do provide an excellent visual description of what Doyle is trying to describe. Humming birds and whales are exceptional animals, they are so different from each other, yet both have a heart beat and need a beating heart to live. They are unique creatures but can be very similar at times. 

The final paragraph is very different from the rest of the story. While it talks about hearts and love, this paragraph strays away from the scientific way Doyle presents his other paragraphs. This paragraph talks about love. It focuses on humans and how they fall in love. He describes a human heart as less of something that is needed to help us live, like he did with humming birds and whales, and more of something that we hold everything in. We hold everything in our heats, “So much is held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment.” (96) Without our hearts we would not know love:

“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.” (96) 

Doyle relates hearts back to jewels, they are all unique and not only a living organ but something that hold a human’s shininess in it. No creature lives without a heart. Every animal on the planet has a heart that helps them to survive. “No living being is without interior liquid motion. We all churn inside.” (96) Without a heart, animals and humans would be motionless and cold. Hearts keep humans and animals warm. Hearts also help animals and humans fall in love. They help humans to find that one special someone to spend their eternity with even if this a myth. Every human wants to find that special someone to fall in love with, to feel that special flutter in their heart when they see the person they love. To find the truth about the mystery behind love. Hearts are the keys to love. Unlocking someone heart allows that human or animal to fall in love with the one unlocking. 

Doyle’s short story embraces all that is true about hearts and love. He tries to find the secret behind what love means and relate it to a flying jewel. He uses a jewel to represent many things in his piece, such as love, uniqueness, and mystery. He personifies a jewel to be a heart or like a beating heart. Just like hearts jewels are unique no one’s heart is the same. All hearts beat but all feel different emotions. All jewels are shinny but no jewel is shaped the same. 