The Wet Engine: Exploring Mad Wild Miracle Of Heart

There are many moments in Doyle’s essay where it seemed as if he was just giving facts about hummingbirds and hearts. But in fact Doyle had a much bigger role for these facts to fill later on in his essay. He states that “Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime.” (Doyle 148) He beings to talk about the different kinds of hearts, those with four chambers, three chambers, all the way to insects, mollusks, and worms all have one chambered hearts. Doyle is not giving us this information just so we can be more informed about hummingbird’s heart’s. He wants us to understand more about how they function, and how necessary they are. This is important to know because it makes readers reflect on the introduction of to “Joyas Voladoras”, where we learn that “having a son, Liam, who was born with three rather than four chambers in his heart” (Doyle 146) In his last paragraph Doyle starts to humanize the facts that we were given throughout the essay. This helps readers understand what Doyle is going through with his son’s medical

In the short story “The Glass Roses” by Alden Nowlan. Nowlan portrays the idea that adversity is part of our lives, and this adversity shapes us as individuals. But in the face of adversity an individual must either strive to fulfill their individual self-interests and ideas or abandon them to conform to authority. Nowlan suggests this idea through the character, Stephen and his struggle to conform to authority or pursue his ideas which suggests that humans often bring about changes to themselves in order to adapt to the environment they live in.

“I knew that what I was seeking to discover was a thing I'd always known. That all courage was a form of constancy. That it was always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals came easily.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses) Humans are fallen, they have a tendency to be self centered and for one to take themselves out of their own body and see themselves, in the way they think and process images and words is

But like always there will be those who are immune to your poison”. The meaning behind it, is it is about bullying. Instead of just saying bullying, I made it into a metaphor by calling it a plague. The bully always looking for a victim but there are always some that ignore them, and in this case, being immune to them. My second quote is, “Trapped in my own personal hell, screaming for help, trapped in my body. No one ever noticed, never gave a second glance. As you watched, I sobbed in the night. ‘fighter’, they say. ‘Poor little girl’, all words never action”. The meaning behind this has 2 meanings, the first is a medical condition called Locked in Syndrome. This is a condition resulting from a stroke that damages part of the brainstem. With that, the body and most facial muscles are paralyzed but consciousness remains and the ability to perform some eye movements. It practically is a personal hell with awareness of what is happening in your environment. The second meaning ties with the first, that on the outside someone pretends that they’re ok. When in reality they are not, no one notices that it’s a charade that they put up. I mixed both of them to create a mood of loneliness and wanting someone to notice they are not

In “To Build a Fire”, the man ignores the advice that he has been given to survive in the Yukon environment: “The man had been very serious when he said that no man should travel alone in that country after 50 below zero. Well, here he was; he had had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old men were rather womanish, he thought” (London 72). The egotistical nature of the man is harmful to his own survival, which leads to dire consequences later on in the story. Ignoring the advice he had been given, the man is used to portray how people can become very haughty, too prideful for their own good. A similar message is conveyed in Crane’s “An Episode of War”, in which arrogance leads to malicious warfare in our own society. When the lieutenant is shot and injured, his pride hinders him from accepting assistance from the men he is commanding: “There were others who proffered assistance. One timidly presented his shoulder and asked the lieutenant if he cared to lean upon it, but the latter waved him away mournfully. He wore the look of one who knows he is the victim of a terrible disease and understands his helplessness”(---). Injured and in need of help, the lieutenant warrants away assistance from his subordinates, as it would be modest to do so. His arrogance prevents his wound from receiving immediate and proper attention from those who rank below him, with the lieutenant only accepting help from other officers on the battlefield. Both London and Crane display similar examples of how human egotism and close-mindedness can lead to harmful effects, especially when people choose to ignore nature’s power. This naturalist style is incorporated in their perspectives, and helps shape some of the many ideas and themes that the reader can pick out from both author’s

In most of the world's greatest literature, there have been introduced countless courageous characters and triumphant victories. These characters have the power to father strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. Such characters as Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God, Gatsby from The Great Gatsby, June from The Joy Luck Club, and Edna from The Awakening. Throughout each of these magnificent stories comes an example of bravery and courage. Although in some cases, the characters may not generally be perceived by the public to be courageous at all, they demonstrate extreme strength in

In the book “Joyas Voladoras” by published editor Brain Doyle, Doyle begins talking about humming birds. The heart of a humming bird, and its physical aspects. Doyle then elaborates on the title that it translates to flying jewels, which the first explorers named them. Doyle is talking about life, the center of all living things life, the heart and the different aspects of the heart. The memory that can be stored there, the heartbeats, the size and even how a heart can be broken. Doyle presents his ideas differently but causes the reader to connect emotionally, factually, and fairly personally.

In the essay, “Joyas Voladoras,” the author, Brian Doyle, wrote about the emotional heart and the biology of a heart. He starts the book off talking about hummingbirds’ hearts and the amazing things they can do. After talking about hummingbirds, he changes the subject to whales and how big they are and how big their hearts are. After the subject of whales, he talks about how different types of living creatures have different amounts of heart chambers and hearts and how every living thing has liquid moving inside. After talking about the heart chambers and functions, he started talking about the heart as in emotions. Doyle’s son, Liam, was born with three chambers in his heart, so he probably wrote “Joyas Voladoras” to convey that all hearts no matter how many chambers are in it, all work the same.

Social science teaches that a person’s self identity is a reflection of that which other people put on the individual, in other words a person’s behavior steams more from what they see of themselves from someone else’s perspective and less from how they see themselves. In the case of the Mexicans, this concept holds true. From that, which has been studied thus far this semester, Mexicans/ Mexican Americans are good examples of this concept. Their sorted past has resulted in a new kind of Mexican American and perhaps a new kind of Mexican. Certainly the Mexicans American’s experience in this country has brought about some changes from the first generation of Mexicans who were born in this country to those who

Throughout “Joyas Voladoras” the idea that the heart is valuable and beautiful is shown in this short story a multitude of times through the metaphors. Life is promoted as such a glorious thing and not everything gets to live for as long as it would like, factors play in and life ends. Muscles and organs fail, and the body can fix itself, but when the heart fails or breaks it can no longer be fixed. Doyle shows the reader that the size or shape of a creature does not matter and that we are all connected through the one thing that we have in common: a

"Los Vendidos," directed by Luis Valdez, is a remarkable play that looks into the historical struggles, stereotypes and challenges of Mexican Americans in a unique fashion. Rather than tell the history of Mexican Americans through documentaries and actual footage, the play conveys its message about the true history of Mexican Americans in the United States through both subtle and blatant techniques.

Brian Doyle's Joyas Voladoras first appeared in The American Scholar in 2004 and was later selected for Best American Essays in 2005. Doyle’s intended audience is the general population, though his writing style attracts both the logical reader and the hopeless romantics who seek metaphors pointing to love in any way. The beginning of the essay provides insight to general information about the hummingbird, which holds the smallest, capable, and fragile heart in the world. He then explains the significance of the blue whale’s heart with comparisons, indicating that the blue whale holds a heart the size of a room. He ends his essay by expressing that a human’s heart is always closed due to the fear of it breaking, remaining constantly

It explains to the reader that no matter how many times a man fails or succeeds in his life, it comes down to whether or not they give it there all or not.

The mood for Joyas Voladores while living is the subject is very upbeat and elated. Brian Doyle uses hummingbirds as his subject. They represent living and dying in Doyle’s essay. “More than three hundred species of them whirring and zooming and nectaring,” is a line from the essay. It is significant because it includes words that presume life. Words like “zooming” and “whirring” are examples of that. Having the author talk to the reader is a clever thing. It makes the reader really think about what the author is saying or trying to say. Due to Brian Doyle talking to the readers, they are more likely to feel the liveliness of his words and maybe even have that feeling in themselves.

A boy sits alone. No one pays attention to him unless they wish to hurt him. He cries, yet there is no mother there to comfort him. He is completely, utterly isolated. People believe he will amount to nothing. He was just an ignored boy, but what they didn’t know was that there was now a fire within him. He would prove them wrong. He was going to show them that this hard life he was given would not be his forever. Many people see hardships as an end to their life, but that’s not always the case. Hardships will, with the right personal drive, positively influence a person’s life.