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Joshua Elwell

Professor Jon Beadle

English 115

9 December 2019

Project Space Essay

Happiness plays a prominent role throughout everyone’s daily lives. Happiness is part of

who we are and three authors try to explain happiness itself. These three authors, David Brooks,

Graham Hill and Sonja Lyubormirsky make a specific stance on happiness and how to achieve

happiness. Brooks in his article, “What Suffering Does”, makes the claim that suffering is a

beneficial thing to achieve happiness and a means to improve oneself due to it “drag[ing] you

deeper into yourself” (Brooks 285). Hill in his article, “Living with Less. A Lot Less” makes the

claim that having more material goods doesn’t lead to happiness since “material objects take up

mental as well as physical space” in fact, it's the exact opposite (Hills 312).In Sonja

Lyubormirsky’s article, “What Makes People Happy” she takes the stance of happiness coming

from genetics ​and intentional activity ​while circumstances playing a more minor role. Despite

the different arguments presented, one stood out above the others in terms of effective argument

and that article would be “What Makes People Happy”. Lyubormirsky's argument proves to be

far more effective through her superior use of logical discussion which is the strongest one of the

rhetorical techniques along with her use of the other rhetorical techniques. Due to emotional

points or pathos affecting only certain kinds of people and credibility or ethos being somewhat

circumstantial, logos prove to be the strongest technique since it affects all readers rather than

some with statistics and proof. ​Lyubormirsky’s use of logos proves to be superior due to lack of
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logos used in the other articles. Logos is present along with the other techniques but doesn’t

stand out as much as it does in Lyubormirsky’s article.

Lyubormirsky starts off her article with a demonstration of logos through bringing in

studies of different people and how their life affected their happiness. The first of these studies

involves two cases where the subjects had a gloomy upbringing meanwhile are the happiest

people. Angela, one of the studies, “considers herself a very happy person” despite “all the

challenges that have come to pass,'' which is the same situation as Randy, another study

(Lyubomirsky 181).Lyubormirsky further brings an example of the exact opposite as Angela and

Randy; Shannon. Shannon’s life is described to have a “lack of tragedy or trauma” but still

“turns everything into a crisis” (Lyubomirsky 182) . Shannon provides more evidence for

Lyubormirsky’s claim of happiness not relying off of circumstances since despite nothing

traumatic happening, she’s unhappy but that is the exact opposite with Randy and Angela. All of

these studies help strengthen Lyubormirsky’s claim through being logical pieces of evidence.

These studies help provide a basis and backing towards Lyubormirsky’s claim which is quite

effective. This use of logos provided is far stronger than the other articles due to the other articles

not providing such examples of studies like in Lyubormirsky’s article. ​The only examples

provided in the articles focus on past events such as historic figures used throughout Brook’s

article or other studies such as in the case of Hill’s article with a study from UCLA. The study

from UCLA is decent enough but when compared to the personal studies that Lyubormirsky took

part in, her studies stand out.​ These studies greatly strengthen Lyubormirsky’s article and makes

it stand out when compared to the other author’s arguments.

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Lyubomirsky throughout the article demonstrates a superior use of logos through using

charts,scales and graphs for the readers to look at. Such examples include a pie chart which

depicts the actual makeup of happiness. This pie graph shows Lyubormirsky’s point of

happiness not being entirely circumstance and describes 50% of happiness being a set point in

one’s life and can’t be changed. This pie graph helps the reader visualize the makeup of

happiness and helps further strengthen Lyubormirsky’s claim. Another such example of visual

logos presented in the article is the “subjective happiness meter” (Lyubomirsky 183). The

happiness meter gets the reader to think about their level of happiness and think more deeply

about the article. This further helps persuade the readers to side with Lyubormirsky’s claim

which in the end helps strengthen the article more so than the other articles. When it comes to

evidence provided in the other articles, they are lacking in substance that involves the reader

actually thinking about the argument. The authors of the articles just state their claim but does

not really involve their readers and make them think ​as they’re reading​ like in Lyubormirsky’s

article which makes them weaker ​such as in the case of Hill’s article of him describing his

surroundings of the life he lived in rather than involving the reader or in the case of Brooks

describing the effects of suffering such as it “dragging it deeper into yourself”(Brooks 285)​.

Lyubormirsky provides charts and graphs for the readers to help visualize the evidence itself

rather than just stating words which proves to be quite effective. If the other author’s were able

to use such forms of logos in their arguments then they’re article could’ve been about on par

with Lyubormirsky’s article. Through this use of visual logos, Lybormirsky is able to captivate

the readers and have them be more involved in the article itself.
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One of the greatest strengths of this article is the fact that rather than just mainly focusing

on just one rhetorical technique, Lyubormirsky uses of mixture of all of them throughout the

article. Through providing the case studies or the happiness meter, Lyubormirsky is able to use

pathos along with logos. People could connect to the case studies of Randy or Shannon which

helps garner support for the author’s claim. Also in the case studies, Lyubormirsky is able to

build credibility or ethos through using other people who have experienced it rather than just

using herself which does help strengthen the argument. Meanwhile when compared to other

articles, Lyubormirsky’s article is shown to weave in more of the rhetorical techniques than the

others. In Brooks and Hill’s articles, they each make a point on happiness yet focus on a

rhetorical technique rather than combining them. In Hill’s article, he mainly takes a focus on

ethos through telling the reader mainly about his past life and while not providing much support

from logos ​and pathos, except in the few cases of a couple studies brought up from UCLA or

how “stuff ended up running [his] life” but these weren’t the main focus (Hills 308) ​. The same

case is for Brook’s article where he mainly takes a focus on using pathos for his argument due to

his main focus of suffering throughout the article.​This makes it so the reader may connect to the

suffering brought up and become more involved in the article but that was the main focus with

barely any support to back it up with the other rhetorical techniques.​ Meanwhile in

Lyubormirsky’s argument, she uses all three techniques yet provides a strong support for logos.

Lyubormirsky mainly uses logos with the others since the logic of a situation proves to be more

effective than just using credibility or trying to appeal to emotions. Statistics and evidence tend

to be the strongest way of strengthening one’s argument and Lyubormirsky knows this and

demonstrates this in the argument. This combination of techniques along with the focus on logos
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demonstrated throughout the article strengthen the argument far above than that of the other

article’s arguments.

Lyubormirsky presents a strong and well-formed argument on the subject of happiness

through which she provided a plethora of evidence to support her claims while the other authors

and their articles don’t quite match up to it. Although the other authors did provide at least a

strong argument for their claims on happiness but in the end, are out done by Lyubormirsky’s

superior use of all the rhetorical techniques. Lyubormirsky is able to provide an explanation on

how to achieve happiness through using a variety of evidence and provides a strong

understanding of happiness itself. Happiness is a goal everyone in the world strives to achieve

yet most don’t know how to exactly achieve it and what exactly is the makeup of happiness

itself. Through Lyubormirsky’s article, the reader is able to understand happiness through her

logical arguments presented in the piece.

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Works Cited

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

Dawn Skorezewski; Bedford St. Martin’s, 2016, pp.284-287.

Hill, Graham. “Living with Less. A Lot Less.” ​Pursuing Happiness​, edited by Matthew Parfett

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

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

Parfett and Dawn Skorezewski; Bedford St. Martin’s 2016, pp.169-197.