Summary of Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Volardoras”

Summary of Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Volardoras” Brian Doyle focuses on how a heart is mesmerizing in various ways in his essay “Joyas Volardoras.” However, he also shows that a heart is vulnerable to the simplest things in everyday life. He expresses both of these points by having a different outlook on the hearts of hummingbirds, whales, and humans. Doyle informs us that a hummingbird’s heart is small in size but it is full of strength. Their heart allows them to fly hundreds of miles nonstop and dive sixty miles an hour. Hummingbirds’ also have extremely aggressive metabolisms, which is why they have hearts that can beat ten times a second. Unfortunately, a hummingbird’s drive in life draws it closer to its own death. Eventually, their hearts burn out and can no longer put up a fight against the harsh conditions in the hummingbird’s environment. The statement “A hummingbird’s heart is a lot of the hummingbird” suggests that the heart is responsible for everything that makes up a hummingbird (166). This shows us the importance the heart has in a living creature’s life. A blue whale has the largest heart in the world. Their heart weighs over seven tons and it can be compared to the size of an average room. A blue whale is twenty feet long and weighs about four tons when it is born. By the time this enormous creature reaches the age seven or eight it experiences puberty and then it vanishes from human knowledge. “But we know this: the animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs, and their penetrating moaning cries, their piercing yearning tongue, can be heard underwater for miles and miles” (168-69). That quote goes with the expression that people with big hearts have more love to give. It shows that blue whales have a close attachment to other blue whales by saying they travel in pairs and make emotional sounds while communicating with each other.
The heart is a complex organ because it plays an important role in our survival, but

Cited: Doyle, Brian. “Joyas Volardoras.” The Best American Essays. Ed. Robert Atwan. 6th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011. 166-70. Print.