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Extended Metaphors In Joyas Voladoras

1112 Words5 Pages

Joshua Cielo
Hill
AP Lang and Comp, P1
22 January 2018
Joyas Voladoras Essay
While hearts have many observable qualities, they also have many properties that cannot be measured or weighed by conventional means. In Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Voladoras”, he explores his sentiments toward those unseeable properties. Through his work, Doyle is telling his audience to not close off their hearts to the things in life that make it worth it, even if it brings pain and sorrow. Doyle crafts his discussion and expands it to convey this message about the properties of the heart that cannot be weighed or measured through his use of distinct changes in tone using specific diction, his changes in point of view, and use of multiple extended metaphors.
Within “Joyas …show more content…

The first extended metaphor occurs in the third paragraph, where the hummingbird is compared to a machine for several short sentences. “It’s expensive to fly. You burn out. You fry the machine. You melt the engine. Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. You can spend them slowly, like a tortoise…” By comparing hummingbirds to machines, he relates hummingbirds to human creations. Earlier in the paragraph, Doyle notes that their incredibly fast heartbeats allow them to search faster for the resources they need to survive. However, those incredible hearts cannot sustain that lifestyle for more than two years, which leads to a paradox. This comparison combined with Doyle directly addressing the reader shows that the paradox of a hummingbird’s heart somehow extends to the reader and all human beings. Another use of extended metaphor occurs in the last paragraph, where the heart is compared to a home where humans are isolated from other people. “We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart… brick up your heart as stout and tight...” Through this extended metaphor, Doyle is saying that we as humans are open to many people, but are afraid to open up to anyone because humans fear their hearts being “bruised and scarred, scored and torn.” However, Doyle states that no matter how much defense humans put up around their heart, they are always vulnerable to emotions. By doing this, Doyle states what many humans do, close off themselves to others. He argues against this later in the paragraph, therefore building an action to argue against which helps convey his message. As a result of using extended metaphors, Doyle builds his message by using qualities of living things to argue for his

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