Joyas Volardores, translated as flying jewels, are hummingbirds. These mysterious creatures were referred to by this name by the early settlers who were exploring the Americas. In the creative, nonfiction essay "Joyas Volardores", the author, Brian Doyle compares the heart of the hummingbird and tortoise, using them as metaphors for different personalities and lifestyles. The two different styles of living are distinguished by their heartbeats. The size and depth of a blue whales heart are used as symbols, like the hummingbird's and tortoise's, and it is the deepest part of his essay. In "Joyas Volardores", Doyle gives a look into the dual-function of the heart and what it means to be alive. The beautifully written essay delivers this moral advice through imaginative, descriptive adjectives and figurative language. 

Doyle combines the physical and emotional aspects to the heart in order to explain inspire readers to live life to the fullest. Physically speaking, the heart pumps oxygen-rich blood from the lungs to the rest to the muscles and cells throughout the body. This blood is critical, for it keeps the human body functioning and alive. Emotionally, the heart is what drives love and compassion in someone as well as in their personality and spontaneity. The heart not only keeps the physical being alive, but also keeps the soul emotionally alive. The heart is beating with physical and emotional intensity. Doyle explains the different ways of living by saying, "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). A hummingbird's heart beats ten times a second. It is living a life that is so fast-paced that it's heart physically gives out after about two years of life. If someone decides to life his life as a "hummingbird", he or she is, in a sense, living life on the edge as a daredevil; someone who lives an exciting but short life. A “tortoise”, would be someone who lives a long life and is rather less involved but can appreciate the meaning of life due to this slower paced life. A hummingbird cannot absorb meanings nearly as well due to their life constant motion. Doyle does not seem give his personal views on which life he thinks the reader should live, rather he gives pros and cons for both. For the hummingbird, one lives a fast and exciting life but because of this lifestyle, dies quickly after only a couple of years. In the case of the tortoise, one might live a slow and less involved life but it would be much longer than that of the hummingbird. Tortoises can also appreciate more than a hummingbird could because a hummingbird cannot absorb meanings in life while in constant motion. 

The one aspect Doyle advises, regardless of living life as a "hummingbird" or a "tortoise", is having the depth of the blue whale's heart. Physically, the blue whale has the biggest heart in the world weighing in at seven tons. "It's as big as a room. It is a room, with four chambers. A child could walk around it, head high, bending only to step through the valves"(Doyle). The whales heart has a dual-meaning, similar to the tortoise and hummingbird. This meaning however, is about the size and depth of the heart; the capacity to love. Blue whales travel in pairs and care for one another throughout everyday of their lives together. Humans can learn from the blue whales and try to imitate; to care for one another throughout everyday of our lives together but it is something that most humans would find challenging today. As Doyle puts it, ”Perhaps we could not beat to be so naked, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart". Doyle's main point here is that we live alone in our hearts afraid of letting others in but whether hummingbird or tortoise hearted, one should have the capacity to love like the blue whale. Doyle finishes the essay by telling how humans protect their hearts out of fear of getting hurt but all it takes is one quick moment to tear that wall down. Doyle ties the entire essay together through the dual-meaning of the heart and how humans have the innate capacity to love for the heart does not just beat physically, it beats emotionally. 

The manner in which this creative, nonfiction essay is delivered is descriptive and imaginative. Doyle uses vibrant, descriptive adjectives in order to create vivid imagery and paint a picture in the mind of the reader. The purpose of this essay is to get across the point that humans should have a big heart in regards to love and compassion no matter what kind of personality they have. Doyle gets this point across by dazzling the reader with a rich vocabulary that projects an image of the different types of hearts. He writes "… more than three hundred species of them whirring zooming and nectaring in hummer time zones nine times removed from ours, their hearts hammering faster than we could clearly hear if we pressed our elephantine ears to their infinitesimal chests” and these descriptive adjectives give the reader an idea of just how small the heart of the hummingbird is. The use of figurative language enhances the overall experience for the reader and makes the main point more understandable. Doyle's use of figurative language draws comparisons between the sizes and heartbeats of different animals. 

The emotional side of the heart can often times be overlooked and is a driving force in lifestyle and controls a human's love and compassion. The blue whale's heart is the most important symbol of the essay for it explains the depth that one ought to have in capacity for love and compassion towards others. In "Joyas Volardores", Doyle draws the reader in by using vibrant vocabulary and figurative language. The figurative language he uses forces the reader to examine the type of lifestyle he/she is living in regards to the heart. Everyone has free will when it comes to lifestyle and personality choices, but Doyle wants readers to be loving, compassionate, and figuratively, have a seven-ton heart.