
The heart is always a topic that seems to be touched upon in multiple forms of writing. Why is this? I believe it is because the heart can stand for multiple things; also worth mentioning that the heart goes through so many obstacles and circumstances in life in such a short period of time throughout multiple forms of human and animal life. The heart is different in every way on everyone and in every form, no one heart ever being exactly alike. Hearts can differentiate by how fast it beats to how much oxygen it takes in, the size of the heart, what obstacles a certain heart will go through, and how each heart has completely different emotions or gets impacted in a different way than someone else may become impacted depending just on who you are. 

A heartbeat differentiates in every form of life. This depends the size of the heart and the size of the human or animal. Like in the story Joyas Volardores “The Hummingbirds heart beats ten times per second” (Doyle 94). The reason behind it beating so fast is dependent on the Hummingbirds heart size, it being “the size of a pencil eraser” (94). Then in the case of how big the blue whale is, them having the biggest hearts known to man so far, the blue whale’s heartbeat is going to be more of a slow paced heartbeat than the Hummingbirds is just based upon the size difference. “Approximately every creature on earth is given two billion hearts to spend in a lifetime” (Doyle 95). So in the Hummingbirds case referring to this passage they spend their heartbeats up fast, “approximately living only about two years” (95). Then in the other cases such as in the blue whales case they have a slowed down heart beat so with this the whale “spares” their heartbeats which helps the blue whale have a longer life.

Hearts are built differently in every form of life, some being way weaker or some way stronger than others. What goes into account when it comes to a hearts structure will be many different aspects such as the size of the person or animal, what activities are carried out by the said person or animals on a daily basis, and what has to happen when oxygen is inhaled. Some animals have four chambers for their heart and some animals have only one chamber in their heart. For example “A Hummingbirds heart is built of a super thin material and leaner fibers” (95). With the part of how hearts are made also deals with what the structure has to look like based off of how a person or animal has to inhale oxygen. As in “Having more mitochondria in their heart muscles to gulp more oxygen” (95). 

Hearts can withstand a tremendous amount of hurt in a lifetime. “As a kid we grow up thinking our hearts will never be hurt or damaged, ‘All hearts finally are bruised, scarred, scored and torn, repaired by time and will, patched by force of character yet fragile and rickety forevermore”’ (96). To me this passage about the heart truly stands out, I believe it rings true to every person no matter what path the said person takes in life, we all get our hearts hurt at one time or another without expectancy. You grow up believing you are strong and nothing can break you down but then sometimes even the smallest things can end up getting under your skin and break your “unbreakable” heart in an instant. Your heart holds every single experience you gone through in your life. All your memories and emotions stored in a single capsule in your body without any warning being able to shatter and leave you speechless. 

Hearts ring a different meaning to everyone, we all experience different things in our lives that force us to become who we are today. All comes about from our hearts and the experiences and emotion our hearts go through on a regular basis. Our hearts set the foundation for what we show on the outside to the world. “We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart” (96). This quote in this passage has to be my favorite one by far. This really shows a lot for what everybody feels on the inside I believe. We open up to others and show them the side of us in which we want them to see but we always keep our true selves, feelings, and emotions buried down for our eyes only. A heart; its shape, its size, how each person utilizes their own heart; who we truly are on the inside, there are so many things that a heart can stand for. This all falls on yourself and how you perceive the symbol of the heart. 