“So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour a moment. We are utterly open with no one in the end- not mother and father, not wife or husband, not lover, not child, not friend.” Brian Doyle is widely recognized as a remarkable storyteller that depicts life lessons for young people. In Joyas Valadores, Doyle introduces us many aspects of writing. He uses a variety of details that help us imagine and feel real life situations. Joyas Valadores is a heartfelt short essay that has creative imagery, a variety of metaphors, and a powerful way of using repetition.
Throughout Joyas Valadores, a great amount of imagery is used. When Doyle is describing the hummingbird in his story, he tells us to take a moment to consider the hummingbirds that did not open their eyes today. He goes on and says, “Each the most amazing thing you have ever seen, each thunderous wild heart the size of an infant’s fingernail, each mad heart silent, a brilliant music stilled.” Can you imagine the size of an infant’s fingernail? In reality, when we imagine the infant’s fingernail we get amazed by how small the hummingbird’s heart is …show more content…
When Doyle talks about the hummingbirds he compares their hearts to several things. For example, he describes a hummingbird’s metabolism as, “[Having] race-car hearts that eat oxygen at an eye popping rate.” He goes on and says, “You burn out. You fry the machine. You melt the engine.” Doyle compares how a heart burns out and eventually stops working like a race-car engine does. Another example of a metaphor Doyle presents in Joyas Valadores is when he talks about the size of a blue whales heart. He describes the blue whales heart valves to be, “As big as the swinging doors in a saloon.” These metaphors help us visualize and compare a hummingbird’s heart to a blue whale’s heart. Doyle does a great job in using metaphors to make one simple thing into something