
          The hummingbird lives two quick, full years. On the other hand, a blue whale lives a longer but slower life. While the pace of each life varies drastically, like all living things, they will both inevitably die. While death cannot be prevented, but Brian Doyle proves there are options for how to live a full life. He demonstrates that the main difference between humans and these creatures is that humans can choose how to live their life. They are capable of deciding the level of intensity they wish to achieve in their life while the animals discussed in Doyle’s piece are barred by their own physical limitations set by nature. The way these creature’s bodies function cannot be changed; therefore they must adapt to their surroundings. By comparing the physical features of the whale and the hummingbird, Doyle delves into the positive and negative outcomes of the human choice. In ”Joyas Voladores,” Brian Doyle argues through symbolizing hummingbirds’ and blue whale’s’ hearts, as well as through his deliberate word choice, that the way people choose to live directly correlates to the hardships they face, and consequently, affects the quality and fullness of their life. 

          Doyle explains the physical attributes of a hummingbird to illustrate a fast way of living. This fast paced lifestyle, shown through the hummingbird’s rapid heartbeat, is desired by people who want to squeeze as much productivity in a short amount of time for fear of falling behind in today's society. However, because humans require rest, they cannot sustain this level of intensity. Doyle makes the reader want to fly through life as fast as possible by comparing the hummingbird’s heart to a racecar. Hummingbirds seek thrill because “if they are not soon warmed” their life will end (Doyle, 95). A constant, fast paced lifestyle is what keeps them alive. The disadvantage of this is that the hummingbirds must spend all of their “gas” at one time, rather than stopping at a pit stop to refuel along the way. Doyle commends the bird’s heart for leading a thrilling life but then shows the drawbacks in how the bird burns out in two quick years. Hummingbirds cannot “rest” for long because of how their hearts work: “But when they rest they come close to death” (Doyle, 95). When Doyle describes rest as death, he emphasizes the negative outcome of living like a hummingbird. The human’s ideals of independence and free will may also lead into a negative view of life as a hummingbird in how the bird is forced to live this way. While excitement makes life worth living, Doyle’s imagery of “the heart the size of an infant’s fingernail” (Doyle, 95) helps the reader understands that this life short lived.

          Doyle also employs the image of an infant’s fingernail to prove that this risk taking personality lifestyle appears at birth. Only certain types of people can live their life dangerously like a hummingbird. While the more cautious population may look down on those who seek the “rush,” Doyle compares “brilliant music” being “stilled” to the death of a creature that lived a brilliantly full life (Doyle 95). This choice of life is a lot shorter and a lot scarier, but worth it for those who can fully appreciate it. Through the use of adjectives and the symbolism of the hummingbird's fast beating heart he explains the perks and drawbacks of a hummingbird's fast life without worry. 

         In contrast to hummingbirds, blue whales lead long, slow lives as shown through the author’s description of the whale’s giant heart. Doyle creates a mental image of a whale’s life by describing the heart’s size as, “A child could walk around in it, head high, bending only to step through the valves” (Doyle, 95). With the child walking around “head high,” it shows another course of life with an abundance of space allowing for plenty of comforts from the harsh outside world. By exaggerating the vastness of the whale’s heart, Doyle shows that people who live this lifestyle insulate themselves from the harmful environment around them. He also later uses the word “bending” to demonstrate that people who live this way only go out of their way when they have to. If one lives like a whale, they float cautiously and follow all the rules set in place by other whale-type people. A life without bending is more straightforward and leisurely but there is no emphasis on the thrill on the thrill of life. Through a lack of a lively lifestyle, the life of a whale is shown in a negative light. 

While discussion of the thrill achieved by living a whale type lifestyle is one that is never mentioned, Doyle discusses the positive gains one reaches by living life slowly. Doyle describes these positive gains of leading a cautious life when he writes, “[The whale] drinks a hundred gallons of milk from its mama everyday and gains two hundred pounds a day”(Doyle, 95). Doyle shows through the progression of numbers in this sentence that leading this kind of lifestyle can be more lucrative with less work. The whale only drinks in one hundred gallons, but miraculously gains two hundred pounds. Through this Doyle symbolizes that by putting in a little bit of work, a person, with this lifestyle, could double their benefits. Doyle illustrates that living a slow, leisurely life is still worth living because it will be more plentiful. From a whale’s perspective, what someone gains from this lifestyle is worth more than any kind of rush from living the fast life a hummingbird

          By explaining the physical limitations and advantages of each animal, Doyle allows the reader to decide how they think their life is best served as a human. He explains that humans have neither of the physical extremes of a restless or overly large heart that limit their possibilities. Whether one rapidly uses their limited heartbeats or not, Doyle explains the inevitable, “that all hearts finally are bruised and scarred” (Doyle, 96). Humans, just like anything living, will die. By using the word “spend” when discussing heartbeats, Doyle exemplifies that, like spending money, the way one spends their heartbeats is their decision (Doyle, 95). It is wise to spend them because heartbeats, like money, will eventually run out. Doyle continues by discussing the life expectancies of other animals by using the numbers in sequence from lowest to highest to symbolize that no matter how one chooses to spend their life, it will still continue to dwindle away. Living life like a hummingbird rather than a whale (or vice versa) will not change the end result. Though this, he notes, that in the end, the physical limitations do not really matter, it's the personal choice that amounts to something.

         Depending on one's personality, life's measure of success varies. For one person, being an accountant with a family dependent on them sounds like a dream. But, for a totally different kind of person that sounds miserable. That individual would rather spend their life on the back of a motorcycle and making spontaneous decisions because they have complete independence. Humans are fortunate to be able to decide the course and speed of their own life because other animals like hummingbirds and whales cannot. A human can live slowly and cautiously like a whale, or quickly like a hummingbird, but both lifestyles are worth living. No matter how the heartbeats are spent, all living creatures will die, so it's the importance lies in choosing the right lifestyle for one's self that brings out their own sense of fulfillment.

In Paper 1, I focused a lot on rewording sentences to make them more formal and express my argument more clearly. Since this was my first paper my mechanics and skills were not as good as I believe they are now based on my experiences in this class. Reading this I was able to pin point areas of improvement in my own writing in a way I wasn’t able to before. This paper saw the most improvement overall from start to finish. I also split paragraph four into two in order to make my two arguments clearer and divide one large, confusing paragraph into two paragraphs that reach the arguments about the same piece more quickly. I always thought an argumentative paper had in introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In this class I learned there isn’t a basic structure but the author should format in a way that best conveys his or her argument. I changed a few of my topic sentences to strengthen the introduction of each paragraph and link them back to my argument. Finally, I corrected a few citation mistakes and added my forgotten Works Cited page.
