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Silvia Gonzalez

Professor Beadle

English 115

15 September 2019

Different Perspectives ​on​ Happiness

Do you really know what happiness is? Around the world, each person has a ​different

meaning ​of​ what happiness is. According ​to​ three different authors, there are different

perspectives on what happiness is. David Brooks and Sonja Lyubomirsky believe that happiness

comes to a person from the interior experiences of our lives. David Brooks argues that suffering

is not a bad thing as it seems to be because when people suffer they recover and they become

happy. Sonja Lyubomirsky ​believes ​that happiness is a state of mind in which a person ​controls

the state of their own happiness. While on the other hand, Graham Hill argues that happiness

comes to people in something material, in how people live their daily lives. Who has the right

answer? Happiness is in our daily life, we might fall into depression or frustration​,​ but happiness

is inside us ​and​ is a feeling that every person can feel​. H​appiness can ​be felt​ through​ mental or

emotional feelings and states​ and people also decide how to live their life​ by​ living ​luxuriously

or humbl​y, but​ always being happy. ​Lyubomirsky’s article, “How Happy Are You and Why?

creates the strongest argument by using the three rhetorical strategies, Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

What Lyubomirsky does different that the other authors are first, she gives examples of real

experiences with Angela, Andy, and Shannon. She also uses a pie chart with levels that explains

the circumstances, intentional activity, and set point. She states the myths of happiness and she
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explains it carefully. With all that, she uses rhetorical strategies in each paragraph of his article

explaining happiness in our daily life.

Lyubomirsky​’s​ article, “How Happy Are You and Why?​”​ she argues how people make

their own life happy. Lyubomirsky interview people on their personal experiences on how they

become happy. “In my interviews and experiments with very happy people, I’ve even found a

few who remain happy or are able to recover their happiness fairly quickly after tragedies or

major setbacks.”(Lyubomirsky 180). With the interviews that Lyubomirsky did to Angela,

Randy​, and​ Shannon, she gave us reasoning on how personal experiences with normal people

relate with happiness. In her interviews, she explained to us how Angela, Randy​, and​ Shannon

became happy, no matter what they pass through. On the other hand, Graham Hill’s article,

“Living With Less. A Lot Less.” he gives his own personal experience. “I sleep better knowing

I’m not using more resources than I need. I have less and I enjoy more.” (Hill 312). These two

authors ​relate​ to Ethos because they both have a connection explaining and sharing their own

personal experiences to their audience, Lyubomirsky of ​another person​ through the interview and

Hill on his own personal experience. ​Ethos gives credibility to both of the authors because they

both have their own experience with happiness, but Lyubomirsky is most effective because she

didn’t give us her own opinion, she uses as an example her interviews with Shannon, Randy, and

Angela. In other words, she had feedback and support of what is she saying about happiness.

Some people have different perspectives on what happiness is. Lyubomirsky describes

happiness by using a ​pie​ chart in levels. In the chart, Lyubomirsky used forty percent intentional

activity, ten percent circumstances and fifty percent set point. That’s how she explained the

transformation in happiness in which each person has control over. The intentional activity is
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everything that we chose to do. The ten percent represents the circumstances that every person

makes in their choices. Finally, the fifty percent is the ​setpoint​, when people believe that they

were born with happiness or not at all. No matter how happy you are or how depressed you feel,

you are the only person to put in your mind and determine the happiness that ​transforms​ the level

in the internal space of a person. On the other hand, Brooks describes happiness with suffering.

“People shoot for happiness but feel formed through suffering.” (Brooks 284). These two authors

are connected through Logos, they both explained their own ideas on what happiness is and in

what happiness is formed. Lyubomirsky explains further what exactly happiness is and she uses

Logos through the use of charts. But on the other hand, Brooks explains that happiness comes

after suffering. ​Both of the authors are using logos correctly but, Lyubormirsky is the most

effective because she uses the graph to get again feedback on what is she explaining about

happiness.

​In this world, there will always be myths and truths. In this case, Lyubomirsky explains

the myths of happiness. She states three myths that they say about happiness. The first one is

called “Happiness Must Be Found”, the second one is called, “Happiness Lies in Changing Our

Circumstances” and the third one is called, “You Either Have it or You Don’t”. Lyubomirsky

states, “the first myth is that happiness is something that we must find, that is out there

somewhere, a place just beyond our reach, a kind of Shangri-la.” (Lyubomirsky 185). On the

other hand, Lyubomirsky corrects this myth saying, “Happiness, more than anything is a state of

mind, a way of perceiving and approaching ourselves and the world in which we reside.”

(Lyubomirsky 185). The second myth that Lyubomirsky states in her article she states, “Another

big fallacy that if only something about the circumstances of our lives would change, then we
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would be happy. This kind of thinking is what I call “I would be happy IF ___” or “I would be

happy WHEN ___.” (Lyubomirsky 185). Lyubomirsky corrects this myth by going back to the

pie chart and explaining the level of circumstances and she states, “Going back to the pie chart,

changes in our circumstances, no matter how positive and stunning, actually have little bearing

on our well-being.” (Lyubomirsky 186). The last myth that Lyubomirsky states in her article she

states, “Many of us, specifically those of us who are not very happy, believe that our

unhappiness is genetic and there’s really nothing we can do about it.” (Lyubomirsky 186).

Lyubomirsky corrects this myth by stating “To the contrary, growing research demonstrates

persuasively that we can overcome our genetic programming.” (Lyubomirsky 186). These myths

about happiness that Lyubomirsky states in her article relate to Logos because Lyubomirsky

clarifies the reality of happiness and she corrects these myths to give us the real structure of what

happiness is. Lyubomirsly is the most effective argument based on rhetoric strategies, in this

case she used Logos referring to the myths that the society invents about happiness.

In conclusion, we are in a world where we frequently use literacy in different ways. In

this case, these three authors used ​rhetorical​ strategies on ​the level​ of effectiveness. The use of

Ethos, Pathos​, and​ Logos in these articles are very common and important in which they let us

know that it is a true impact using​ literary​ devices. Happiness is a feeling that all people

experience in their life as suffering that brings depressed and frustration but happiness is inside

us and we will always recover no matter what. All three authors ​refer​ to the three rhetorical

strategies but the article “How Happy Are You and Why?” refers to each rhetorical ​strategy

more deeply​, because Lyubomirsky got a lot of feedback and support of pie charts and the

interviews of real stories of Shannon, Randy, and Angela. ​We can compare the three authors and
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their ideas, but ​Lyubomirsky’s​ article talks about the main idea of how happiness relates to each

rhetorical strategy. Not every person has the same level of happiness and that each person is

different when it comes to levels of happiness, each person has their own version, experiences​,

and​ perspectives on what is happiness. The only difference that ​makes​ people unique from

happiness is that we all feel the same feeling of happiness ​from​ different perspectives.

Works Cited

Brooks, David. “What Suffering Does” ​Pursuing Happiness,​ edited by Matthew Parfit and Dawn

Skorczewski Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 284-287

Hill, Graham. “Living With Less. A Lot Less” Pursuing Happiness, edited by Matthew Parfitt

and Dawn Skorczewski Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 308-313

Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “How Happy Are You and Why?” ​Pursuing Happiness​ edited by Matthew

Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 179-196