
        Every living thing on earth is connected. When analyzing mankind and the animal kingdom, it is hard to deny the inevitable truth that all life has similarities which connects one another. From a physical to mental characteristics, we are all related. In the short story, Joyas Volardores, Brian Doyle does a great job highlighting the similar characteristics between various kinds of life. By using various kinds of life and comparing them, he lets the reader get a better understanding of how each different kind of life is interconnected. Throughout the text, Doyle writes with an underlying meaning of trying to display how everything is connected in order to link all life in a broader context. In the creative text, Joyas Volardores, Doyle implies that all living things are similar in both physical and mental characteristics to show how all life is connected with one another. 

The idea that every creature has a limited time to live with varying ages, but with such similar physical features, encases the idea that our base roots connect us all to one another. For example, Doyle explains the similarity of limited heartbeats within a lifetime of all animals and says, “Every creature has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in one lifetime” (Doyle 95). By putting forth this fact, Doyle puts and connects all creatures into one category; life. However, through this connection, Doyle brings up a point and explains that all life is limited. The reoccurring theme of spending the limited time all life has either too fast or too slow entails Doyle’s idea to make the most of the time you have alive. Doyle makes a connection between two very different animals and how their lives are differently lived and says to us, “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 lived to be two years old”  (Doyle 95). Again, the idea that both of these creatures’ times are limited explains to us how life is connected with one another. The tortoise symbolically represents life's longevity and safety, while the hummingbird represents the shortness in life and the risks that are taken. Both of the lives of these animals are extremely different, but are linked by the idea that their time to live is limited.  In the end, though the animals that are used in the example are so extreme, the similarities they share remind us as people not think as different to other life, but as being the same because of the limited time we all have. 

When looking at the physical characteristics of animals, we see that we are all very similar. When looking at the anatomy of every animal, cell, and human, it is clear that the whole frame of life and its base structure is connected through what we are made up of. Doyle begins to explain a countdown of different complexities of hearts in organisms of a wide range of sizes and goes on to say, “Mammals and birds have hearts with four chambers … unicellular bacteria have no hearts at all” (Doyle 96). Doyle is not listing these facts just for our knowledge, but he is trying to prove a point in how life is connected even on the simplest scale of the heart. By breaking down the comparison of hearts to an organism as small as a cell, then comparing it to very large organisms such as birds and mammals, Doyle gives the representation of how similar life is no matter the size. In addition, Doyle makes the comparison of the physical characteristics of cells that make up all life. Doyle says to us, “No living being is without interior liquid motion. We all churn on the inside” (Doyle 96). By adding on this point, Doyle further proves the connectivity of all life based on how we all have such similar physical characteristics. When Doyle says, “We all churn on the inside,” he brings up a specific physical characteristic to illustrate the similarity shared between the liquid motions in the cells of all creatures. All creatures have evolved this way physically due to evolution and the principal of survival of the fittest. The way that this attribute has helped life develop on earth demonstrates that we are all connected due to the way it keeps us alive and how it has molded to fit the conditions of earth perfectly. It is not simply a coincidence that all life is has interior liquid motion, which brings back the idea of all life being connected from a base root. 

All organisms share the conscious thought of life and or love. Through the repeated use of hearts and no other organs or parts in the body, Doyle uses symbolism to connect life and what the heart may truly represent, which is love. Doyle talks about the largest creatures in the world, blue whales, and how they interact with one another then says, “But we know this: the animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs, and their penetrating moaning cries, their piercing yearning tongue, can be heard underwater for miles and miles”  (Doyle 96). Doyle creates the connection between large creatures to explain how even being so large in size does not change the fact that they still feel the thought of life and love. When Doyle transitions to beginning to talk about humans in the last paragraph, he further proves how all organisms share the conscious thought of life within themselves. He says, “So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment” (Doyle 96). This statement about the heart as a symbol further speaks to us about how every moment impacts you no matter what kind of life you are, and gives further meaning to the conscious thought of life. He makes this broad statement to give additional proof to his theory of underlying connectivity of life, and to show how we all think in a similar way. 

In Joyas Volardores, Doyle writes with an underlying meaning that all living things are similar in physical and mental characteristics to show the connectivity of all life. While all animals have different lifespans, the physical characteristics and limited time they share show that there are similarities between all life. The conscious thought of life and love further proves to how there is something which links us all. We as life are all indifferent to one another, and the similarities we all share prove how connected we truly are. 
