Logan Wilhoit

Essay #2 Attentive Mind: Joyas Voladoras (revision)

Prof. Luis Limcolioc

working thesis : Joyas Voladoras states we must tear down emotional blocks around our hearts
to truly open up with someone. Doyle Compares different personalities of peoples as well as the
fragility of the human heart using comparisons between the hearts of hummingbirds to other
creatures. (using joyful then Bleak/despairing than comforting vocabulary)
ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

Are we Human? Or are we Joyas?

In the essay Joyas Voladoras, by Brian Doyle, we at first see very uplifting writing
throughout. (p) A tilt of the wrist using an explorative amount of adjectives to give a reader a
sense of emphasis and depth to the visuals Doyle deploys. However, within the last paragraph
we see Him create a short list of species, each with differing number of heart chambers. Even
so different, Brian binds them together "No being is without interior liquid motion. We all churn
inside. So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart, in a day, an hour, a
moment" (pg.169 BAE) He creates a direct connection between not only of those he had
written, but every individual in this existence. Which is truly what this essay is about,
Individuality.

Brian Doyle begins the essay, as well as the comparison, in Joyas Voladoras by asking
the reader to "consider the hummingbird" (pg.166 BAE) and proceeds to seemingly give a highly
descriptive biology lesson about the tiny avian's circulatory system, repeatedly using the words
"hummingbird" and "heart" over and over. Doyle helps the reader focus specifically on this
small, powerful bird, making clever use of vocabulary to describe the bird's aeronautical abilities.
Making observations about the rapidity of the bird's life, it's "insane idea of Flight." (pg 168 BAE)
Half-way through his lesson about the bird, Doyle transitions the singular "hummingbird," an
individual word, a sort of, 1st person word, into the impersonal "they," a more generalized 3rd
person word. Later when speaking of how many heartbeats a being pumps in a lifetime, He
quickly switches back around, from "they" to a much more personal "You."

Doyle leaves the reader with a Choice, "You can spend them (heartbeats) slowly, like a
tortoise, and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast, like hummingbird,
and live to be two years." (pg.168 BAE) This supplies a subtle shift in the reader's mindset,
allowing them to think about a bigger picture, away from birds, but then towards individuality and
how every human being must choose the pace of their own life. (C)

Doyle adds a different animal into this comparison, a Mammal, the Largest Mammal, and
owner of the Largest Heart on the planet, the Blue Whale. <(C)<(P) He describes how huge of a
"heart" this creature has. How a child might "step through valves' as big as swinging saloon
doors." (pg. 168 BAE) He continues to emphasize with the enormity of the organ, also
numbering how few whales may be left in the ocean. "There are perhaps only 10,000 Blue
Whales in the world." (pg. 168 BAE) Doyle begins to assess the "culture" of the whale, one "for
next to nothing is known" (pg 168 BAE) However adding "But we know this: the animals with the
largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs."(pg 168 BAE)

With the addition of the whale, Brian also brings something else into the mix. His talk of
children and traveling the world with a partner, sounds like a family, right? A Family is
composed of individuals that support one another not for survival, but out of mutual love and
respect. A family requires a certain pace in life, not paying the “expensive (price) to fly. You
burn out. You fry the machine.” (bae pg. 168) nothing to fast, nor to slow.

Doyle offers the paced, methodical, yet mysterious whale as a counterpoint to this speed
monger of a bird. How Some individuals rush through their lives, running amok or being
beneficial, these people refuse to slow down, “having racecar hearts that eat oxygen at an eye
popping rate.” (bae PG. 168) For when they stop, like the “hummingbird,” they drop, “when they
rest they come close to death. (BAE PG. 167) And How other individuals chose to take their
time, and like the whale, when they wish for companionship, “their penetrating moaning cries,
their piercing yearning tongue, can be heard (underwater) for miles and miles.” (BAE PG. 169)

Back at the end of the essay, Doyle truly gets into the Heart of the matter. (P) "We are
utterly open with no one, in the end-not mother and father, nor wife of husband, not lover, not
child, not friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps
we must. Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart."
( pg.169 BAE) He sets forth the idea that our prince or princess charming is just the naivety of
youth. He leaves the reader with a bleak setting of individuality, a veritable emotional desert.
That our dreams of truly finding someone to be with becomes withered as we grow, and come
to realize that "All Hearts finally are bruised and scarred' patched by force of character' yet
rickety forevermore." (pg. 170 BAE) Yet it is exactly this force of character that Doyle
wishes to convey.

Brian wants to convey that EVERY person is an individual, and EVERYONE has their
own walls. No matter how; gruff, mean tempered, angry, sincere, generous, or kind, everyone
has a patchwork heart of emotions. We all must choose our own pace in life. Set your goals as
high as you wish, wherever you wish, but take your own time. Or you just may “suffer more
heart attacks and aneurysms and ruptures than any other living creature.” (bae PG. 168)

Joyas Voladoras is actually a painting of much deeper meaning and much less
despairing qualities than it lets on. While we may wall up our hearts and become cold, they
becomes "felled in an instant by a woman's second glance (desire), A child's apple breath (joy),
the shatter of glass in the road (fear), a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to
die (disgust), the brush of your mother's papery ancient hand in the thicket of your hair
(mother's touch), the memory of your father's voice early in the morning echoing from the
kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children (father's support)." (pg. 170 BAE)
 Every single one of those a near Base instinct or human emotion, bypassing our
emotional and psychological blocks to show who we might really be. Doyle doesn't say
specifically, but the key to finding love is to understand that, even though "You" may have been
hurt inside, every other Individual has been as well. In this moment of realization, you begin to
have a chance to find someone in that crowd of individuals that truly understands, "You." Doyle
creates a veritable oasis within a desert, blooming with life, yet easily mistaken for a mirage.

Reflection: I wanted to keep most of the essay as it was originally, but after taking a longer look i
had realized i would be better off moving some later paragraphs forward. There was the more
obvious explanations that were needed for my description of the whale, but after concluding that
and expanding on a couple other points, i felt like i had done a nice job.

Doyle, Brian. The Best American Essay College Edition. Ed. Robert Atwan. 6th ed.
Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011, 2008, 2004. Print. (brian doyle, Joyas
voladoras author