Joyas Voladoras Summary

“Joyas Voladoras” is a short story written by Brian Doyle first published in “The American Scholar”. Doyle is known to write about a specific organ,the heart, because his son was born with a heart condition. In this story, Doyle uses scientific facts to convey a message that everyone has emotions in their life. He writes about relationships, heartbreak and other feelings that are present in all creatures.
The Author uses the life of whales to express the idea of emotional attachment. Doyle explains that Whales have the biggest hearts of any creature that we know of. Their bodies gain around 200 pounds a day, yet we know close to nothing about them. rOnce they turn seven years old, we hardly have any knowledge on their adult lifestyle. Doyle

He was discussing the kinds of hearts which different types of species consist of. Some animals have one chamber in their hearts; some animals have multiple hearts,like worms. He explains bacteria has no heart, just fluid within them. The author writes, “No living being is without interior liquid motion. We all churn inside” (Doyle). The fact that everyone has a different type of heart, represents the way that people present themselves.Everyone looks, sounds, or acts a certain way. For Example, some people may talk about everything going on and some may only speak a few words about their troubles. Despite their ability to share them, everyone feels a certain way inside; and those feelings are called emotions. Likewise, everyone has something keeping them alive, whether it be fluid or an actual heart.All species may be built differently,but they are all capable of feeling different

The author was writing about how at a young age, people always dreamt of a perfect life with their loved ones and their significant others made just for them. However, as they grow up, they soon realize that those dreams are far from reality. They now feel the need to protect themselves from the pain in the world. Doyle says “..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, no matter how ferocious the defense and how many bricks you bring to the wall” (Doyle). Everyone in the world has their own weakness;no matter how hard they may try to hide it, their weakness is always going to be there and they experience pain and heartbreak because of it. People try to isolate themselves from the harsh reality that the world itself is flawed, but something always gets to them, something can always break them down. They can get over the heartbreak, but there will just be more that will effect them down the line; whether it be big or minor. Allowing something to get you down, cause pain in your life requires you to have feelings to be troubled by