In Brian Doyle’s Joyas Volardores, the symbol of a heart is a key component of the makeup of the story. He uses different animals to portray different angles and perspectives on the idea of a heart and what it means and represents for the different animals involved in the story. He uses both a hummingbird, one of the smallest and fastest moving animals on the planet, and a whale, one of the largest animals, to comparatively contrast their vastly different heart makeups. While reading the story blandly one may not think about how Doyle is utilizing the hearts of the two animals to correlate them to that of humans’, I believe that he uses the two animals to portray the immensely different types of human hearts, which ultimately share similar feelings at their roots. 

Doyle starts his story with a brief explanation of the heart of a hummingbird and its makeup, as it is “the size of a pencil eraser” (Doyle 94) and makes up most of the actual bird itself. He is giving the reader a basis for how small and delicate the bird truly is, thus giving the first comparison to particular human beings who happen to share similar traits, having a massive heart filling up their small body. He explains the meaning behind “joyas volardores” and how they are flying jewels and were a rarity to many people for a long time, similarly to the types of people who may go unnoticed or who believe they are unlike all others. He then goes on to tell the reader how they “visit a hundred flowers a day” (Doyle 95) and can “fly backwards” (Doyle 95) and can “fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest” (Doyle 95) thus confirming their identities as extremely tedious and busy animals yet very talented, shining a light onto the type of people who appear as super people completing every task put in front of them at the highest degree of perfection possible. Doyle then takes a slight turn from the hummingbird’s impressive qualities, and describes how the birds have very vulnerable hearts, as they are always living a life close to death. When they choose to rest on frigid nights they walk a fine line close to death as their hearts grow cold and weary. Doyle lists a lot of different qualities that further portray the bird’s vulnerability which helps to portray his point that while many people appear busy and tedious, or like they have no problems going on, they in fact have very delicate hearts and may be experience things at a higher emotional degree than many. Just because someone fills their time with business and consistent work does not mean that their emotions felt in their heart are stable at all times. 

Furthermore, in the next paragraph Doyle dives into the makeup of the hummingbird’s heart, as it is “built of thinner, leaner fibers than ours” (Doyle 95) and have “arteries that are stiffer and more taut” (Doyle 95). This is the first time that we see Doyle compare the heart of a hummingbird to that of a human. Towards the end of the paragraph, Doyle states that the bird’s “price of ambition is a life closer to death; they suffer more heart attacks and aneurysms and raptures than any other creature” (Doyle 95) further explaining their vulnerability.

He finishes off the paragraph with a statement regarding the contrasting lifestyles of a tortoise and a hummingbird, “you can spend them slowly, like a tortoise… or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird, and live to be two years old” (Doyle 95) to convey the differentiating lifestyles which people live. Doyle’s explanations and statements regarding the heart of hummingbird symbolizes an extreme type of humans who have vulnerable hearts. It represents the type of humans who live each and every day busy and speedy, caught up in their job, possibly workaholics. It speaks to those who live their life as daredevils and on edge at all times, looking for adrenaline rushes, living their lives close to death. Doyle also infers that these particular type of hearts are also ones that are delicate, easily damaged, and get heartbroken often as they may take things different ways than others, consistently expressing and yearning for certain emotions. These type of people get their hearts broken easily and need persistent mending and support to rebuild their hearts. The hummingbird represents the broad differing spectrum of all of those who may not show on the outside that they appear to have a delicate heart, but on the inside battle it every day. 

Doyle next goes onto talk about the heart of a whale and how it is, “the biggest heart in the world” (Doyle 95). Again, Doyle uses a human to help his argument for the type of heart for which he is trying to convey mentioning, “A child could walk around it” (Doyle 95) and compares the whale to a boy in puberty, for “next to nothing is known of the mating habits, travel patterns, diet, social life, language, social structure, diseases, spirituality, wars, stories, and despairs of the blue whale.” (Doyle 95). Here, Doyle is using the whale to describe the ever-changing confusing period of puberty that all teenagers ace, and the whirlwind of emotions that a teenage heart goes through. He goes on confirm that we do know one thing about the whale in that it likes to travel in pairs, and that their cries and moans can be heard for miles underwater. I see this as a comparison to the type of human hearts that are very mysterious and always on their own. While their hearts may be large and have a lot of capacity of deepness, they also seem to be dark and missing something. They are without something, empty, longing for another. However, we do know that they travel in pairs and have a significant other, possibly a lover. At the bottom of it, Doyle is trying to tell us as readers that these type of people, despite their large chambers, are somber and truly puzzling individuals. 

While the course of the story involves Doyle utilizing different animals to portray the vastly different types of people in the world, in the final paragraph, Doyle explains to the readers that although every person’s heart is completely different from each other’s, as some may relate more to that of a hummingbird and some to that of a blue whale, we all share similar feelings and emotions. We all share memories that make us truly feel things inside, and whether they are sad, happy, excited, or optimistic, each and every one of us has it inside of us to connect certain recollections from the past. Doyle is telling us that regardless of if we are living lives like that of a hummingbird: at an extremely fast pace or an adrenaline junkie, or a life like that of a whale: clinging to others, and having a depth in our heart that is truly unexplainable, we all share similar experiences and memories that help us to feel things inside our delicate hearts. 
