
Every day individuals go on in their daily lives passing by things that now may seem so normal to them in their routines. They pass people every day seeing how they might look so different on the outside but on the inside everyone’s hearts still beat the same. The make-up of the anatomy, of how big or small, and how thick and thin may be different but the physiology is the same. As Doyle states, “Every creature on the earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime” (95).  Everyone gets to decide how they are going to spend those heartbeats. Whether that means they go on being lazy in their lives and not taking advantage of what life has to offer or taking every opportunity that is throw at them to make life worth living for. Both the hummingbird and the blue whale have the choice of how they spend their days. Readers get to take a look at the similarities and differences Doyle lays out between the hummingbird and the blue whale in, “Joyas Voladores”. By looking at the comparison of the hummingbird and the blue whale, we can see how the physiology of most living things are related, which most people do not see, and this is important because it gives the reader a new outlook on how everyone should be living their life. 

Hummingbirds hearts, even though very small, make a major impact their day to day lives. Doyle starts out the short story by talking about the life and history of the hummingbird. The hummingbirds were looked at as such amazing creatures when the first white explorers came over to America. They were called “flying jewels” also known as “Joyas Voladores” (94). The amazing creatures have small features to them. Most importantly taking look at the size of their hearts. As Doyle states, the size of the hearts of the hummingbirds are comparable to the “size of a pencil eraser” (94). The little hearts have such an impact of the daily lives of the hummingbirds. While the heart may be so tiny compared to another creature’s heart, even everyone’s own heart, it takes up a lot of the body mass of the hummingbird. Its little heart is very important to daily life that the hummingbird lives. They are constantly relying on their hearts to help them make it through their buzzing lives. While they are making it through their buzzing lives, the heart is always beating at a fast pace because it has to keep up with the productivity of the little hummingbird’s life. Hummingbirds are always out and on the move. For them to be stopped not doing anything is not very crucial for them to make it through, as Doyle states, “when they rest they come close to death” (95). Their hearts start to slow from their normal pace and become colder than the warm temperature it should be at. The heart is constantly beating at a rate of “ten times a second”, which is a lot faster than the human heartbeat (94). With constantly being on the move comes great speed at which they fly. Each hummingbird can visit up to a thousand flowers a day and dive at the speed of sixty miles an hour (Doyle 95). They have to be going at a fast pace if they want to visit as many flowers as they do. Doyle uses these descriptions of the hummingbird to give the reader of his story a visual to help further his argument. The reader gets to visualize the description of the bird which will allow them to fully understand what Doyle is arguing. Hummingbirds are amazing creatures who live fast paced lives, even though they are small. 

While hummingbirds are small creatures with small hearts, the blue whale is a huge creature with “the biggest heart in the world” (Doyle 95). Imagine yourself sitting inside of an average sized room of a house; this is the relative size of the blue whale’s heart. You could fit over a million of the hummingbird’s heart inside of the blue whale’s heart. The heart is so big that as Doyle states, “A child could walk around in it, head high, bending only to step through the valves” (95). The blue whale’s heart takes up a lot of space in the body much like the hummingbird’s heart did. Along with this huge heart comes a great deal of weight, “more than seven tons” to be more exact (Doyle 95). While the heart adds a great deal of weight to the whale, it makes the whale move at a much slower pace than the hummingbird and its small heart could.  Besides this, not much is known about the blue whale. These animals are far too big and make it very difficult to get information on. The most that is known about the lives of the blue whale is that they “generally travel in pairs” since they have such big hearts (Doyle 95). The blue whale even though much larger than the hummingbird gives a new outlook of the comparison of both creatures.

With the comparison of the hummingbird and the blue whale in mind, it can now be shown how they are both similar to human lives making the reader look at the bigger picture of life. The build of the hearts can show characteristics that relate to the daily human life. Hummingbirds have hearts that resemble fragility. As Doyle states, “their hearts are stripped to the skin for the war against gravity and inertia”, which could be compared to the adult heart (95). Most adults have gone through many experiences in their lives that would strip them down to their skins. The have built up walls around their heart to keep them protected from what could hurt them. Most likely many adults have been hurt in the past and they wouldn’t want to go through that same pain again if they don’t have to. Hummingbirds hearts are more thin than a blue whale’s heart making it more relatable to an adult heart. On the other hand, a blue whale’s heart would resemble strength. While a blue whale is a huge animal, the heart that is within is huge too. Children much like the blue whale have big hearts. They most likely haven’t gone through traumatizing experiences making them build up walls to close up their hearts. Doyle states in “Joyas Volardores”:

“When young we think there will come one person who will savor and sustain us always; when we are older we know this 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).

Children are fearless and not much can harm them. They do not think that someone is going to come and hurt their hearts later in life. They live life with open hearts. If they fall, they get right back up and just brush it off. Children don’t hold on to as much pain in their hearts that adults might have. By looking at how both animals can be related to human life it makes the reader take a look at how lives no matter human or animal, can be similar in some ways. 

Doyle shows the relationship between the hummingbird and the blue whale which allows the reader to see how they are related to humans. The heart is an essential part of the body and how it makes both animals function throughout their daily lives. No matter how big or small, it plays a major role. The heart resembles two major characteristics that each person holds; fragility and strength. As Doyle states, “so much held in a heart in a lifetime”, individuals go on everyday holding a great deal of feelings in their hearts (96). Seeing the relationship between one of the smallest animals, the hummingbird, and one of the biggest animals, the blue whale, will make the reader see how even two complete different animals are still relatable much like all humans are. How are you going to spend your two billion heartbeats in your lifetime?
