Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Volardores” is a unique piece that undoubtedly has many important messages and does an excellent job getting the reader to connect with those messages. In the process of writing this short story, Doyle uses many different literary devices to expand the reader’s cognition, the most effective being metaphors. Throughout the entire piece he incorporates metaphors that convey many different messages, but there seem to be three points that are especially strong in meaning. One point is that people live very different lives based on many things, including the decisions they make and their style of living. Another point communicates how fragile life is as a whole. The third point hits home, saying how we should cherish and live every moment of life to the very fullest. 

The biggest thing that Doyle argues through his use of metaphors is that everyone goes through life differently. Each and every person will make certain decisions that make their life different from the lives of others. These decisions are made by a host of reasons. To name a few: the way in which one may think, the personality of that person, and the wisdom or intuition that person may have from experiencing life. “Every creature on Earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. You can spend them slowly, like a tortoise… or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird…” (Doyle 95). This quote speaks volumes; it is using the comparison of the tortoise and the hummingbird, two entirely different animals, to say that there are many different ways to live life. One might go through life speedily, going 60 miles per hour, “only stopping once every 500 miles to pause and rest” and live a short but adventurous life. One may also go through life at 10 miles an hour, taking in the scenery that is life while slowly trotting by, stopping every 100 miles and having a lengthy but fulfilling life. Then there is of course the person who cannot chose what type of life they would like to live, so they fall somewhere in between the two lifestyles. This person who is stuck in the middle might be traveling through life at 35 miles an hour and stopping every 300 miles to rest; this person may live a moderately long life while enjoying some of the qualities from both the quick and slow moving lifestyles. What is the best way to live? That answer is simple: whatever way of life works best for each person is the best way for them to live. The three lifestyles given serve as general examples, because there is an infinite number of ways to live life, each way is catered towards each individual. 

The heart is essentially in charge of whether or not one is living. The human heart holds immense power, yet it is only the size of the average fist. “A hummingbird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser.” (Doyle 94). The heart of a hummingbird is so small, but it controls all vital functions, so fragile that one thing wrong could be the difference between life and death. Brian Doyle does a superb job in explaining the true fragility of life. “… 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… You can brick up your heart as stout and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant…” (Doyle 96). He illustrates how hearts are “bruised and scarred” and the bruises and scars are metaphors for the effects of tragic events. After a tragic event happens and the heart is “scarred,” the heart uses time and character to patch and repair itself. Even though the scar (tragic event) has been repaired, patched up, and forgotten about, the heart will forever be more fragile than it was before. One can build the biggest, strongest wall, but in the end someone will be let inside that wall and leave a scar; the fragility of the heart has won again.

The last point is the one that hits Doyle the hardest. Live every moment of life to the fullest. This used to be just a cliché that Doyle would hear everyone say, but it did not really resonate for him. It was not until the birth of his son, Liam, that he realized each and every moment counts for something. His son Liam was born with only three of the four chambers a normal heart has. A condition like that is often life threatening and detrimental. Liam was no different from the rest; he needed to have surgery for the doctor to save his life. The first surgery was a success, however, Liam would need many more by the time he was 10 years old. His dad soon realized that he may not have much time with his son and that he needed to make the most of every moment he did have with him. The whole concept of cherishing every second quickly grew on Doyle and he incorporated it into every part of his life. “So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment.” (Doyle 96). That quote reveals how Doyle is truly inspired by his son. Doyle even talks about a heart, which goes back to the thing that originally caused him to cherish every moment of life: his son’s heart. 

Brian Doyle masterfully crafted together metaphors to give Joyas Volardores multiple sensationally meaningful messages to take away from his short story. The way he used the heart to symbolize life helped bring a whole new understanding to the piece. The use of the heart aids the reader in connecting with the story just that much more, because everyone has a heart. After learning about Doyle’s son’s heart condition it makes one realize that the piece has a vastly deep meaning, one that directly connects with the struggle in Doyle’s life. Overall, the three biggest messages that were drawn from this piece were that people lead different lives that are geared towards them, that life is an extremely fragile thing and it must not be taken lightly, and lastly that we should cherish every day, hour, and moment of our lives. Together these points give the reader words to live by and valuable knowledge to carry through life.
