
Brian Doyle’s essay “Joyas Voladores” uses the symbols of the hearts of different animals to illustrate many ideas he has about life, and what life means. Much of this piece is centered the idea around living life to the fullest. More specifically he discusses fulfilling one’s purpose in life. At first glance, this piece often feels daunting, or even morbid. It would be easy to interpret this piece as a pessimistic one. He calls the reader to consider the number of hummingbirds who have died in a single day, and describes in great detail the emotional pain the heart can go through in a lifetime, saying: “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. (Doyle 96)” It is easy to interpret descriptions such as these as Doyle having a glass half-empty outlook on the human experience. However, a deeper look at the text will reveal that this piece can be interpreted in a very optimistic way. While there are certainly parts of the paper such as the instances mentioned earlier that focus on the more grim aspects of human experience, the overall message of the piece is one of hope or positivity. 

Doyle describes a hummingbird’s heart as something that is very delicate. He describes the hummingbird’s heart as being very small and fast paced. The implication of something that small and delicate can bring about stressful feelings. This is shown by the quotation: “The price of their ambition is a life closer to death; they suffer more heart attacks and aneurysms and ruptures than any other living creature (Doyle 95).” While this may seem like an idea that is frightening, the optimistic view of this idea is that the hummingbirds are living their lives to the fullest. The hummingbirds get less heartbeats than many of the creatures on this planet, and they are using all of their heartbeats to the fullest of their potential. The language of this passage is important because while it may seem tense, it is meant to bring out excitement in the reader. Like the hummingbird, humans only get a limited amount of heartbeats, and we are all trying to spend our heartbeats the best way we know. 

Doyle discusses the fact that hearts are very different in nature. Hearts differ in size, number of chambers, even number of hearts in the body. He describes hearts in this way to emphasize the vast diversity, not only in hearts but it the whole of living organisms. Despite the differences that he outlines in this paragraph, he notes that despite all the differences, our hearts unite all living organisms, saying: “No living being is without liquid interior motion. We all churn inside (Doyle 96).” This shows, that no matter the creature, all creatures have their own purposes. Every being on earth contributes in some way, and this idea is comforting in that each of us matters in a different and unique way. The heart is what drives this purpose in all organisims. The heart propels each creature towards its purpose every day. Most creatures on earth do not get to choose their purpose, however humans are fortounate enough to be able to choose their own unique purpose in life. This is what seperates humans from all the other creatures on the planet.

The paragraph discussing the hearts of the blue whales brings up another interesting point about the complexity of the heart. Doyle describes the blue whale as a very mysterious creature, by saying: “next to nothing is known of the mating habits, travel patterns, diet, social life, language, social structure, diseases, spirituality, wars, stories, despairs and arts of the blue whale. (Doyle 95)” Doyle has previously emphasized in the text that a lot can be known about a creature through its heart, and the blue whale is no different. This is an idea that can be daunting. The heart is in many ways very mysterious, and that can be a scary thing. The optimistic view of this idea comes with another description of the blue whale. Doyle says: “The biggest heart in the world is inside the blue whale. It weighs more than seven tons. It’s as big as a room (Doyle 95).” While the blue whales are very mysterious creatures, their hearts are enormous. This speaks to the incredible capacity of organisms to love, despite outward appearance. The blue whale can be a very intimidating creature at first glance, but they have enormous hearts.  It is important to recognize that while something may appear frightening, that may be an incorrect judgement. Doyle supports this in his passage by discussing the lack of knowledge humans have about these creatures. This expands on the idea that even with as much knowledge as humans have, we are still limited, which speaks to the fact that we should think before judging. 

Doyle speaks of the fact that throughout a lifetime, hearts can become damaged, both physically and emotionally. The heart goes through a lot of turmoil throughout the years. As Doyle says: “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 (Doyle 96).” This idea demonstrates how we build up walls around our hearts in the hopes of protecting them from damage, although it is useless in the end as something will always come along to hurt us again. The positive aspect of this idea is in the fact that there is always hope. The fact that some things will always tear down our walls proves that we are never truly closed off from the world. No matter how we may have built our walls up, we are never truly on our own. 

Brian Doyle’s Joyas Voladores, presents many concepts to the reader that may appear daunting or frightening at first glance. The language he uses is intentional, because when it is considered in a deeper, way it can reveal a much more positive interpretation. The descriptions of the hummingbird’s heart, while may it seem small and delicate, shows that the hummingbird is truly living its life to the fullest at every moment, because it simply has no other choice. The vast differences in all of the hearts of living organisms show that despite a great diversity on earth, all living organisms have unity in this idea. The blue whale, while it seems very large and mysterious at first, has the biggest heart of any animal on the planet, demonstrating that even the most daunting creatures still may have a great capacity to love. Doyle also discusses that no matter how damaged a heart may be, it can always be repaired.
