
             Every detail in every aspect of life, no matter how big or how small is able to be broken down and looked at much slower and in a way that we understand and respect it’s value.  Organisms, whether it be a flower or a doe, is more than a doe or a flower, it is a heart, a living breathing being that is more beautiful than it may appear.  In the essay Joyas Voladoras, Brian Doyle conveys a message that the world, and everything in the world has a deeper meaning and more value than we can tell from the outside, to understand what the deeper meanings are, the readers need to slow down, observe, and live life not so fast.

            Doyle’s use of the different sizes of the animals, shows that no matter how big or how small, life should be appreciated.  Doyle uses the hummingbird and the blue whale as a contrast in size in order to convey that no matter the size, life no matter how big or small should be appreciated and looked at differently than how most people look at it.  The hummingbird’s tiny body shows no matter how big or small look at it.  Doyle talks about the hummingbird’s size by saying, “A hummingbird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser.  A hummingbird’s heart is a lot of a hummingbird” (Doyle).  A hummingbird is small, however Doyle takes it even smaller and goes down to the size of the hummingbird’s heart.  Doyle breaks down every component of everything in a hope to explain that there is much more.  He never says it, however they deep breakdown of everything is a way to show that in order to get the whole meaning of life, we must slowdown and look into it.  On the contrast, Doyle uses a blue whale, the biggest mammal on earth to show the difference.  The use of the whale heart is to show how big a heart can be.  “It’s as big as a room.  It is a room, with four chambers.  A child could walk around in it, head high, b ending to only step through the valves” (Doyle).  The whale is brought up, because the whale is the biggest mammal in the world, yet we know nothing about it.  The fact that the biggest animal in the world is a mystery bothers Doyle.  He feels as if we should know more.  

           The constant use of the word “speed” and the examples given, while they do not directly show that we should slow down and live at a slower rate, it is the way that Brian Doyle portrays his beliefs to the readers.  The entire point of Doyle’s essay is to get the point across to the readers to slow down.  Life moves to fast.  We need to slow down and look at everything.  Back to the hummingbird, the hummingbird is fast.  It goes through life with such speed that it only lives two years.  “It’s expensive to fly.  You burn out.  You fry your machine” (Doyle).  The idea moving fast bothers Doyle.   In order to appreciate everything, you must slow down.  “Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime.  You can spend them slowly, like a tortoise and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast, like a humming bird, and live to be two years old” (Doyle).  Again, throughout the essay Doyle goes back to the point about speed and living too quickly.  The entire point of his essay is to portray the idea of slowing down.

           In the last paragraph, Doyle switches over to a human’s heart.  By doing so, Doyles is switching his overall message from a general view, to strictly a human being in order for the reader to understand and relate what he’s trying to say.  The final paragraph is one that can get a point across.  Doyle’s word usage sends a message with his final words.  The reader can relate to what Doyle is saying.  However, it does switch to a much darker tone.  “We are utterly open with no one in the end – not mother and father, not wife or husband, not lover, not child, not friend.  We open windows to each other but we live alone in a house of heart.”  Doyle, the entire length of his essay has been talking about animal’s hearts.  In the final paragraph, he finally switches to a human’s heart and how a human feels during his or her lifetime.  Doyle is saying that no matter how we live our lives we will struggle.  Everyone goes through a rough time, but if we just constantly put up walls and ignore what life throws our way we will not every better ourselves.  If we constantly go never slowing down, then we do not learn as human.  “You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and it comes down to and instant”.  The entire purpose of this essay is to get the reader to at least think about his life and how fast he lives it.  No matter how big or small something may seem, it is much bigger and deeper than we understand and in order to completely understand it we need to slow down in order to get the complete two billion heart beats in a longer period of time rather than a couple of years.  

            In conclusion, Doyle is saying that we as humans need to slow down.  Like he says, “Every creature on this earth has approximately two billion heartbeats.  You can spend them slowly… or you could spend the fast, like a hummingbird”.  The speed we live our lives determines how much we get out of life and how much we understand and can comprehend.  No matter what happens in our life if we slow down we will get more a bigger picture rather than bits and pieces of what is going on around us.  Without using one line saying “slow down and enjoy life”, Doyle is using the heart of a hummingbird and the tortoise to send a message that life is precious and should be lived at a slower pace in order to get the true understanding out of life.
