
In “Joyas Volardores”, Brian Doyle uses a variety of different animals in order to convey a deep message that humans are more relatable to animals than one might think. This claim is proved throughout the entirety of this essay. Additionally, this piece is filled with different methods that help Doyle convey his many messages. Doyle is able to do all of this with vivid metaphors and imagery which draw in the reader and help them come to elegant conclusions. “Joyas Volardores” has an interesting structure that is not common in most essay with different tense shifts. Furthermore, this essay allows for the reader to conceptualize different opinions based on their interpretation of the text. 

Doyle begins by using hummingbirds as metaphors by relating a variety of their actions and choices towards those of a human. After explaining the name of the essay and providing introductory details about the origins of hummingbirds, there is a swift transition into the second paragraph. These introductory details include the comparison of a hummingbird’s heart to that of a pencil eraser and the fact that they came into the world only in the Americas. In the tenth and eleventh line, anaphora can be found where Doyle wrote “They can” at the beginning of three straight sentences in order to add emphasis and create a smooth rhythm for the reader. However, there is an abrupt change from discussing the amazing skills of the hummingbird to discussing their deaths. This change becomes visible from the thirteen line to the sixteenth line, “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...”.  At this point in the essay, the text illustrates the fact that hummingbirds have a delicate life and that suddenly everything can change. This concept of delicacy and uncertainty in life is highly relative to humans. 

A thought-provoking concept about the pace of life arises in the third paragraph of this essay. After discussing the metabolisms of birds, the essay shifts into discussing the reasons for why mockingbirds have heart attacks and aneurysms. For example, on the thirty-first line, “The price of their ambition is a life closer to death..”. Hummingbirds have to risk losing their lives due to their motivation and drive. In the thirty-third line, the essay shifts from a general tone and becomes more personal due to a tense shift. Doyle starts to use the word “you” repetitively for the remainder of the third paragraph. The essay discusses the pace of life of hummingbirds with relation to humans as soon as the tense shifts to second person. For instance, from the thirty-fifth line to the thirty-eighth line,  “You can spend them slowly, like a tortoise and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird, and live to be two years old.”. Doyle concludes this paragraph by using the hummingbirds to make the reader weigh out two different options about the pace of life. The ideal option would be to live life to the fullest, but the other option would be doing regretful things and not taking advantage of the greatest gift one can receive. 

Doyle transitions from talking about hummingbirds to discussing blue whales, he uses these large marine mammals in order to convey a message about how humans should love and express their emotions. This transition is provided in order to proof to the reader that a variety of animals have characteristics that are similar to those of a human. He begins by using a simile to compare the size of a blue whale’s heart to a room. Vivid imagery and simile can be found in the descriptions of the blue whale’s heart in the forty-first line,  “ The valves are as big as the swinging doors in a saloon.”. As the paragraph progresses, Doyle points out the fact that humans do not know a lot about the blue whale. Right after he makes that point, he wrote “But we know this: the animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs..”. Doyle is trying to show the reader that blue whales know how to express their love and live properly with another member of their species. This concept of expressing love and emotion can relate to humans, because a large majority of couples display affection and love towards their significant other.

The structure and layout of the heart is used as a transition in order to make the essay even more meaningful to the reader before the conclusion of the essay. Doyle discusses the amount of chambers in the hearts of different animals including: fish, worms, turtles and mollusks. Doyle concludes the fifth paragraph by stating  that all living things have interior liquid motion and that “We all churn inside.”. With analyzation, the reader can realize that all living things have some sort of similarity.

Doyle concludes the essay by discussing the importance of the meaning of love and the complications that are a direct result of love.  In the sixty-third and sixty-fourth line, Doyle wrote “We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart.”. This comparison shows the reader that humans let in others when they love them, but humans still tend to be hesitant and cautious with those that they let in. A few lines later, the essay explains that as humans get older they tend to realize that the concept of finding one person that will unconditionally love you is very unrealistic. In the sixty-ninth line, Doyle wrote “You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant..”, this shows the reader that time helps heal the wounds that are inflicted from people that they love. Additionally, the final paragraph of the essay helps the reader understand the process of building trust and improving relationships after experiencing heartbreak. 

Throughout Doyle’s essay “Joyas Voladores”, he uses a variety of literary devices in order to push across a message about the similarities in experiences among different animals and humans. Doyle successfully uses unorthodox linguistic choices and this enables his writing to come across with a deeper meaning. Using a variety of different animals, small to big, Doyle is able to assist the reader in understanding messages and concepts about love and experience that engages a broad audience. Undoubtedly, this piece by Brian Doyle provides vivid imagery and illustration towards all aspects involved with love. 