In Brian Doyle’s essay, “Joyas Volardores”, he discusses how the heart functions within different creatures and how that affects their lives. By looking at the repetitive use of the word heart, we can see Doyle’s argument that it is up to each individual person to shape their own life and to open their heart to others. By understanding the main argument Doyle is trying to perceive the viewer will come to the conclusion that it is up to them to choose how they spend their limited heartbeats and while no way is the correct one, they may find better experiences through a slower, open-minded life. 

As the viewer makes their way through Doyle’s essay they notice how the physical functions and metaphorical ideas of the word “heart” varies within the three different animals he discusses. This contributes to his larger argument. Throughout the first part of the essay the word “heart” is repeated more often as he is talking about the fast pace life of a hummingbird and uses short quick sentences to help convey this point of his. In the next part of the essay the word heart is repeated less as he is using longer sentences to discuss the long life of a blue whale. In another paragraph of the essay he discusses multiple animals so “heart” is repeated several times here. The amount of times the word “heart” is used in each paragraph plays a role in how the viewer perceives Doyle’s main argument. 

The use of the word “heart” while discussing the hummingbird has a physical appeal to the readers. The first mention of the word “heart” in Doyle’s essay is used in describing the size of a hummingbird's heart. In the first paragraph of his essay he explains how the hummingbird's heart is very small when he compares it to “the size of a pencil eraser”(Doyle 94). He also describes the heart as beating very fast. Because of these physical characteristics of the hummingbird he lives a short, yet thrilling life. Doyle says, “But when they rest they come close to death: on frigid nights, when they are starving…” (95). By looking at the physical characteristics of a hummingbird's heart it allows the reader to understand why the hummingbird has such a short lifespan. As the size of this creature is so small and the heart beats so quickly, they will eventually run out of fuel and no longer be able to keep living. The heart of a hummingbird allows the viewer to see how the physical strain of moving so quickly through life and doing so much will affect your health. 

At the end of the hummingbird metaphor, Doyle compares the heart of a hummingbird to the heart of a tortoise. This comparison simply allows the reader to look deeper into the argument. He states that every creature gets two billion heartbeats in their lifetime so you can either spend those heartbeats like a hummingbird, fast and short, or like a tortoise, slow and long. Up until this point the “heart” has only been mentioned as simply the “heart.” At this point in the essay we see the word “heartbeats”. The reader is so familiar with seeing the word heart and now gets a word that describes what exactly the heart does for these creatures. It beats. The beats keep the organisms alive and each person has to decide how they would like to use them. 

Next, the repetitive use of the word heart in the following argument is discussing the heart of a blue whale. This argument has an emotional appeal to the viewer. Doyle first discusses how the heart of a whale is the biggest in the world and weighs several tons. He uses a metaphor of the heart of the whale to something relatable to humans. He explains the blue whale’s heart as being like a bedroom, that a child could walk around, and the valves being as big as swinging doors in a saloon. This metaphor continues throughout the rest of this paragraph as he mentions “your car” (Doyle 95) and explains the whale's life much like a human's life. This allows the reader to relate to the whales heart and feel the connection on an emotional level. The next part of the heart of the whale metaphor that appeals to the viewers emotions is that they usually travel in “pairs” (Doyle 96). This is the first mention of pairs that may spark the topic of love that we later see evolve in this essay. As we know, many humans end up with a partner at sometime in their life that they travel and stay with until they die which is much like the blue whales. 

The second to last paragraph of “Joyas Volardores” helps to evolve the final paragraph to conclude Doyle’s main argument. The word “heart” is repeated in every sentence but one in this paragraph. Doyle is informing the readers about the chambers of the hearts in several different animals here. The final sentence of the paragraph says “they all churn inside.” (96) This paragraph is allowing the reader to understand that although the size and functions of hearts in different organisms vary they all play the same role. This leads us to the purpose of the final paragraph. 

In the final paragraph of Doyle’s essay the focus is now on humans. The “heart” he speaks about in this paragraph is the heart that the viewer is most familiar with. Doyle is not introducing the viewer to a new subject and explaining the physical characteristics or the emotional strain they are unfamiliar with, yet he is connecting them both. Physically, the heart of a human holds so much and shapes the human life. Emotionally, many memories and experiences that shape your life affect your heart and thus the way you live. 

Throughout the whole essay the viewer sees the repetition and symbol of the “heart”. They see it through the hummingbird, the blue whale, and a human. As the meaning for the heart in each of these scenarios changes from a physical sense, to an emotional sense, and then to a combination of both they notice the main reason for the repetition of the word heart is to understand the human experience. If a human goes through life with the heart of a hummingbird they will have a quick, yet thrilling life. If they go through their life with the heart of a blue whale they will have a longer and possibly more loving life with relationships and more experiences surrounding them. Doyle does not perceive either lifestyle choice to be better but leaves it up to us to decide how we would like to live. The final paragraph allows the viewer to feel a connection with the essay to its entirety. No matter how they choose to live, their heart is what shapes their life and gives them meaning. Almost every person will experience some sort of heart break but in order to fully experience their life they can not block their hearts from the bad times. They have to be able to accept the challenges and grow stronger. 
