The story Joyas Volardores, written based Oregon-based writer Brian Doyle, compares the hearts of different living things. He discusses the physical functions of hearts as well as the emotional aspect of them, ranging from small hearts to big hearts. The theme of this story is that all hearts are similar, yet also unique. Doyle’s interesting use of literary devices comes into play to help discuss the topics he addresses. Some of these devices occur more than once. The way he uses them has an impact on how the reader is able to connect with the point Doyle is trying to make. By looking at imagery through the use of metaphors and rhythm in this piece we see Doyle’s use of literary elements to help deliver his point to the reader, which helps convey his message of the similarities and differences in the hearts of humans and animals alike. 

Doyle’s use of imagery in the composition helps with the effectiveness of his message. By using metaphors to create an image in the reader’s mind, he explains how humans believe they can make their hearts invulnerable to the negative emotions the outside world provides. In order to help his point, he compares the heart to a brick wall, and explains how people try to “brick up” their own hearts. By comparing the heart to brick wall, it helps the reader understand what he means; the reader now has something tangible they can connect this idea to. Doyle also uses other instances of imagery to show that no matter how strong one makes these heart-walls, there’s always something that will bring it right back down. Doyle gives seven examples total, but one of these examples proved his point better than the other ones, “…the words I have something to tell you…” (Doyle 96). The phrase “I have something to tell you…”; a phrase possibly everyone has heard and knows the unsettling feeling that follows it. The reader is able to make an image in their own head of someone saying this phrase to them. Whether it be a woman speaking it to a man she’s been in a relationship with or a doctor saying it to a father whose child is in the operating room, by making this example personal, Doyle’s point is extremely effective. If he had stated a specific example the person reading may not connect with the example he provided. Imagery creates a relatable image for the reader, but there’s more elements that help the reader comprehend Doyle’s point.

Another literary element used in this writing is rhythm. The rhythm of each part matches the heartbeat of the corresponding animal. “[Hummingbirds] visits a thousand flowers a day. They can dive at sixty miles an hour. They can fly backwards. They can fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest.” (Doyle 95). A hummingbird’s heart beats ten times a second. These short, fast-paced sentences help represent the pace of their hearts. By emphasizing the speediness of the hummingbird, it helps highlight the insane speed of the hummingbird’s heart. But this isn’t the only example of rhythm used to accentuate a heart. Another example of rhythm is used to show the largeness of a blue whale’s heart. “…for next to nothing is known of the mating habits, travel patterns, diet, social life, language, social structure, diseases, spirituality, wars, stories, despairs, and arts of the blue whale.” (Doyle 95). The blue whales heart is as big as a room. Doyle goes even farther to say “A child could walk around in it, head high, bending only to step through the valves.” (Doyle 95). The largeness of the sentences used aids the representation of the large hearts of the blue whale. The long and drawn-out sentences correspond with the whale’s dragged-out heartbeat. Doyle’s use of rhythm is cleverly matched with the hearts of the animal discusses, which helps point out the differences in each one’s heart. 

The last device used is a metaphor, by itself. Doyle pushes the uniqueness of the hummingbird’s heart by comparing it to a race car “that eats oxygen at an eye popping rate.”. He also tells us how their hearts have thinner fibers, stiffer arteries, and more mitochondria in their heart muscles, all allowing the bird’s heart to pump faster so it can stay flying. The problem with having an insanely fast heart is it causes more aneurysms and heart attacks than any other living creature, it burns out the car’s engine. Though the hummingbird’s engine is distinct from the rest with this speed, it’s quite similar to the other engines as well. “Each creature on Earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. 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.” (Doyle 95). Although the hummingbird’s heart is unique in the aspect that it beats extremely fast, it’s similar to the rest because it serves the same purpose, and can pump blood throughout the body about the same amount of times as other creatures. 

Brian Doyle uses literary devices to help the reader connect with the idea that all hearts are related, but also are different. He uses imagery to help his argument become palpable, rhythm to help connect with the scales of different hearts, and metaphor to compare the heart to something common to help understand how the heart works. Doyle shows the wonders of the heart, and how the heart can be both similar and different in living things through these literary elements. Doyle’s use of these literary devices aid in the conveyance of his theme, which is the diversity and resemblance of the hearts of different living things.
