
A heart is a vital organ that pumps blood throughout the body. It is an essential organ for living. Without a heart, life wouldn’t be possible. Humans are not the only species with hearts. Birds, reptiles, and even whales have hearts. It is the one organ that every animal shares. In his essay, “Joyas Volardores,” Doyle explains the metaphorical and physical properties of any living creature’s heart. They might all be different shapes and sizes, but the heart is the one organ that unites us all. 

Hummingbirds are small creatures with hearts the size of pencil erasers. Doyle uses imagery to ensure the reader comprehends how small the hummingbirds’ hearts are. Hummingbirds’ have four chambers in their hearts, like all birds. Birds are not the only other species besides humans that have four-chambered hearts. Whales also have four-chambered hearts. The big difference between a whale and hummingbird’s heart is size.  A whale’s heart is bigger than a car. Even the size of a room. A small child can fit and walk around the inside of a whale’s heart. Tortoises, on the other hand, have much smaller hearts and only have three chambers, like most reptiles. Even though these animals have different numbers of chambers, they still all have a connection. The connection being their hearts.

 In his essay, Doyle describes how a living creature uses the heartbeats it has in a lifetime. Every living creature has approximately two billion heartbeats to spare in a lifetime. He says, “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” (CRE 95). Doyle uses the tortoise’s slowness as a symbol of living life as safe as possible so you can live longer. Unlike a tortoise, the hummingbird symbolizes living life to the fullest and just going straight for it instead of playing it safe. Although these two animals have different methods of using their heartbeats, they still have the same number of heartbeats as one another.

Humans have four-chambered hearts. A human heart is about the size of a balled-up fist and sits on the left side of the chest. Humans use their hearts to supply oxygenated blood throughout their bodies. They also use their hearts to feel emotions. Doyle wrote, “When young we think there will come one person who will savor and sustain us always; when we are older we know this is the dream of a child, that 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…” (CRE 96). This quote describes emotions a human heart can feel. When a human is a child, they think they will just fall in love with their soulmate. As a human gets older, they understand that there is not necessarily a soulmate for everyone. Some experience heart break and tragic events, but they patch their hearts back up and move on with their lives. 

Hummingbirds, whales, tortoises, and humans all have hearts. These hearts may be different shapes and sizes, but they connect and unite them together. Even though they have a different number of chambers, they still share the most important organ in the body. The heart. A heart is a heart. It keeps an organism alive and functioning. Doyle said, “No living being is without interior liquid motion. We all churn inside” (CRE 96). Whether it be blood or fluid, animals cannot live without what the heart maintains. The heart produces oxygenated blood from deoxygenated blood. It basically recycles the blood so that it can be reused to keep the body healthy and working properly.

Hummingbirds and humans are very much alike when it comes to the heart. They both have the same number of chambers, can suffer from heart disorders, and have great ambition. Doyle wrote, “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” (CRE 96). Hummingbirds and humans both have heart attacks, aneurysms, and ruptures but hummingbirds experience it more often. Their hearts are beating so fast that it cannot handle the pressure being contained inside of its small chest. 

The hummingbird’s ambition puts its life at risk. Doyle says, “It’s expensive to fly. You burn out. You fry the machine. You melt the engine” (CRE 96). Doyle compares the hummingbird to an airplane. The more ambition the hummingbird has to fly, the more it will cost its life. He compares the engine to the hummingbird’s heart. Once it melts the engine, it’s out. A living creature only gets one heart. Only two billion heartbeats. Only one shot at life. 

The vital organ known to be a heart connects all living beings. It keeps them alive and functioning. There might be differences along the way, such as size or shape but a heart is a heart. No matter the differences the heart still serves the same purpose in every living organism. The heart keeps blood pumping through the body keeping creatures alive. The heart is the only organ that unites us all.
