A human’s heart beats at an average rate of 70 times per minute. A hummingbird’s heart beats over 1,263 times per minute. A blue whale’s heart beats at a rate of 6 times per minute. Although each heartbeat has it’s own unique rhythm and speed, all living things possess this common characteristic. Throughout Brian Doyle’s essay, “Joyas Volardores”, he compares animal nature with various humanistic traits. One trait that is prevalent through his text is the concept of a heartbeat. Through symbolism of animals, Doyle creates a representation of human life and the lifespan they go through as well as the aspects that accompany life. 

Doyle starts his story with hummingbirds. He describes how hummingbirds go quickly through life, never really stopping to rest. They are constantly beating their wings at a rapid rate, flying from place to place to survive. “Each one visits a thousand flowers a day. They can dive at sixty miles an hour. They can fly backwards. They can fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest.” (95).  This can be compared to the beginning of a human’s life. A child has a curious wonder of the world, constantly “flying” from place to place, exploring without care. They often don’t know right from wrong, what’s dangerous and what’s not, and live a relatively carefree life. At this stage in life, things move quickly. They play, learn, and eventually begin to grow up. New experiences happen to them daily, and they quickly grow and begin to understand and interpret the ever-changing world around them. Children also at this age don’t usually know how to slow down and appreciate the things around them, expecting life to be exactly the same when they wake up the next day, a hard reality they face upon growing up.

Upon growing out of the child stage of life, teenage and college years are often filled with turmoil and realizing who, as a person, each individual is. At this point in life, each individual has had many different experiences in the world, each unique to them. Something that happens to one individual could affect them in such a different way than it would affect another. “So much held in a heart in a lifetime… we open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart.” (96).  What Doyle means about living alone is that each individual has his own outlook on life. Teenage and college years are mostly about finding out who you are. It is the time to discover what makes everyone an individual and what he or she wants to accomplish with life. 

After college, many go off to get a job and eventually find someone they love and cherish, and agree to spend the rest of their life with. Love and a sense of belongingness is an important feeling to have, often making the individual a more complete person. Many people seek out these feelings, finding them at this stage in life. Doyle then talks about the animal with the largest heart in the world, the blue whale. He says, “the animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs, and their penetrating moaning cries, their piercing yearning tongue, can be heard underwater for miles and miles” (96). The animals with the largest hearts cherish love. This is something humans and animal alike both cherish, love and a sense of belonging. This shows how important love is in order to live a fulfilling, happy life; ideally surrounded by love and joy. Humans seek love and belongingness; it is a basic need for most. While seeking this, many find a significant other to travel with and live life with, much like these blue whales. 

After a long life, people enter the stage where they are considered “elderly”.  At this stage in life, things begin to slow down. They often take things day-by-day, appreciating life more, not necessarily knowing when that day will be their last. They spend more time doing the things they love, spending time with loved ones and family, and really appreciating the time they have left on earth, remembering their lives, as Doyle states, “So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment”(96). At the end of their life, they have all of the memories and experiences that they have encountered stored away, at this point only a memory. This is how they usually end their lives, reminiscing on the good and bad times they had in the past.

Throughout, Doyle uses symbolism to show the lifespan of a “typical” human. He sums it all up and shows the basic underlying meaning and purpose of life stating that no one’s life is perfect, and the memories and experiences a human has makes them into the person they are today. Throughout a human’s lifespan, there will be many happy moments, and many sad. Each individual has a different amount of hardships, but everyone has them. No one’s life is perfect, but that is okay, since it turns the individual into the person they are supposed to be. Doyle says, “all hearts finally are bruised and scarred, scored and torn, repaired by time and will, patched by force of character, yet fragile and rickety furthermore, no matter how ferocious the defense and how many bricks you bring to the wall” (96). It is possible to build up your heart with tons of bricks and attempt to make yourself a strong, independent human, but it is natural in humankind for that wall to come crumbling down every once in a while. Even the strongest, most carefree person has marks on his heart, where he has been beaten and broken down. 

Throughout the essay Dolan is teaching us about a traditional human lifespan and humankind as a whole through the use of animals and their beating hearts. From the smallest of hearts in a hummingbird to the biggest of hearts in the blue whale, each could be compared to a different stage of life in humans. This is only a model, and obviously not every human follows this general mold with his or her outlooks on life. However, Dolan uses it as a general mold for a human lifestyle, and how he believes humans live it, through the symbolism of animals.
