Munoz-Gallegos 1

Brian Munoz-Gallegos

Corri Ditch

English 115

9 December 2020

The Path to Happiness: Different Perspectives

Happiness is the feeling almost everyone will strive for in life, it will come easy to

some and will come hard for others, but no matter the circumstances happiness is more like a

state of mind, that depends on a person’s perspective and outlook on life. The three articles

"The Sources of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, "How Happy Are You

and Why?" by Sonia Lyubomirsky, and "Living with Less. A Lot Less." by Graham Hill all

share an identical claim that a person is in control of their happiness. Although they all argue

the same claim, they have different ways of incorporating rhetorical appeals in their writing.

The writers use a very vast amount of Rhetorical strategies in many formats such as personal

stories, experience, and even genetic studies. While all three authors argue the same claim, the

one who is proven to have the most effective argument from their use of rhetorical appeals, by

using ethos and pathos shown in relatable personal stories and logos exemplified in scientific

experiments which ultimately persuades the audience to acknowledge her argument to a

greater extent is Sonia Lyubomirsky in the article "How Happy Are You and Why?"

First off in the article "The Sources of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama and Howard

Cutler the use of rhetorical techniques is done nicely, but not perfect when compared to the

others. At the beginning of the article, the writers reveal to the audience information that the

speaker is the Dalai Lama who is known as the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan

government in India. Along with the introduction of Howard Cutler, explaining that he is a
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writer and psychiatrist who studies in the field of happiness (Cutler and Dalai Lama, 21). The

introduction of these individuals reveals what seems to be their biggest use of rhetorical

techniques, which is ethos. This builds their credibility of talking on this subject since one is a

very well-known name in India and the other is an expert on happiness studies. The Dalai

Lama and Howard Cutler show their use of logos while presenting experiments done by

professionals which show how a person’s happiness can be controlled by changing their

perspective on life (Cutler and Dalai Lama, 23). These experiments present a good use of

logos within this article, but compared to Lyubomirsky this article is lacking enough logos to

have a stronger argument. The author shows a compelling use of pathos within this article by

sharing a personal story that trails back to when he was diagnosed with HIV and how it

affected his well-being (Cutler and Dalai Lama 21). The use of emotions within this article

makes his personal story of controlling happiness to be very convincing, but being compared

to Lyubomirsky and Hill they fall short in being the most effective. Consequently, the Dalai

Lama and Howard Cutler’s use of rhetorical devices succeed in using rhetorical devices to

support their argument, but it fails to present the most effective argument out of all the

articles.

Secondly, in the article "Living with Less. A Lot Less." by Graham Hill, the speaker

presents his story of coming to peace with his happiness during a period in life where he

experiences an overwhelming amount of success. While doing so the author predominantly

focuses on the incorporation of pathos, which subtracts the use of other appeals in his writing

and ultimately makes his argument convincingly weaker than the others. Immediately the use

of ethos is shown at the beginning of the article. Hill’s credibility is revealed when he explains

that he is an entrepreneur and has a degree in architecture, which doesn’t give much
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credibility to the argument that he is making (308). Additionally, he includes the experiences

that he went through, from huge success and lots of materialistic items to a simple life. The

personal experience he shares contributes to ethos but it is not as professional when compared

to the other two articles. On the other hand, Graham Hill presents the use of logos within this

article when supplying evidence from a study done by UCLA which supports the idea that it is

stressful when you have a large number of material items (pg 310). The evidence used is a

good example of logos in this argument since it is the same issue that he had faced, which

helps support his argument throughout the article. Furthermore, Hill’s use of logos is

implemented in the article well, but Lyubomirsky uses a greater amount of superior

experiments, which makes her argument done better. When Hill includes pathos within his

article it ends up being the most effective rhetorical strategy for him, since he shows the shift

in emotions he faces in life as he switches lifestyles (310). By showing how greatly the life he

lived affected his happiness, the use of his strong emotional memories can influence the

audience to agree with his argument. Then Hill includes pathos when he shares his story about

his relationship that occurred and how it had affected his happiness when changing lifestyles

(311). Overall Graham Hill did well in using rhetorical techniques to make his argument

effective, but the issue is the fact that he primarily focused on pathos took away the strength it

could’ve had if it had more use of the other appeals like the other two articles.

Finally In the third article "How Happy Are You and Why?" by Sonia Lyubomirsky,

The author continuously uses a large amount of ethos, pathos, and logos throughout the entire

article, the stronger use of rhetorical appeals forms her article to have the most powerful

argument. To make her claim effective Lyubomirsky uses personal stories and several

experiments that support the topic from experiences to sciences. Firstly the article begins with
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displaying the credibility of Sonia Lyubomirsky, it begins with showing her credentials such

as her Ph.D. in social psychology and is a psychology professor, along with the fact that she

has done over 80 experiments on the topic of controlled happiness (pg 179). Without doubt

with Lyubomirsky’s titles it is proven that she is the most credible out of the other authors

listed above, although she is lacking personal experience, she has done many scientific

experiments and is a professional in this topic. When compared to the others, Sonia

Lyubomirsky is the most credible when speaking about the topic of controlled happiness.

Then the author includes an important use of pathos within the first portion of this article

when she mentions the many personal stories that come from real people who have come

across difficult hardships growing up from abusive parents to extreme poverty (Lyubomirsky

180). The message of these stories was to display examples of people that eventually found

happiness in life even though they faced major problems throughout their life. The pathos

included in this part of the article is very strong, these emotional stories can have a strong

effect on the audience by the connection to these stories the audience can have. While the

other articles have personal stories by the authors, Lyubomirsky not having a personal story

herself will make it up by including stories of others which is a very smart use of pathos and

proves her argument to be effective in an emotional sense. This article is largely made up of

logos, Lyubomirsky uses several experiments, facts, and data to prove that her argument is

accurate. There are many examples of experiments that Soni Lyubomirsky references, one of

which is a study done that proves the correlation of happiness to genetics by using twins (pg

188). Another strong fact that supports her claim is data that confirms 50% of a person's set

happiness is concluded by genetics but the other 40% is based on intentional activity which

means it is based on your perspective and actions in life (Lyubomirsky 184). The studies
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referenced in this article was the most influencing use of logos from the three articles. These

experiments that were shown by Lyubomirsky have more scientifically accurate answers to

the question “can you control your happiness”, therefore the logos in this article is more

convincing than the others. All details considered the article "How Happy Are You and

Why?" by Sonia Lyubomirsky has the strongest use of rhetorical appeals, which proves to

make her argument to be the most effective.

In conclusion, the three articles “The Sources of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama and

Howard Cutler, "How Happy Are You and Why?" by Sonia Lyubomirsky, and "Living with

Less. A Lot Less." by Graham Hill all relate by arguing the same claim. Although sharing a

similar argument, for the reasons above the author who uses rhetorical appeals most

effectively is Sonia Lyubomirsky. The two articles by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, and

Graham Hill support their claims very well by using rhetorical techniques but in the end, fall

short to Sonia Lyubomirsky. The article done by Lyubomirsky is proven to be more effective

because she implements ethos, pathos, and logos, from emotional stories to compelling

scientific experiments, and her remarkable background in the study of happiness. In

conclusion, the article “How Happy Are You and Why?” by Sonia Lyubomirsky has the most

persuasive use of rhetorical appeals out of the three articles above, which ultimately supports

the idea that her argument is the utmost effective from the set.
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Works Cited

Parfitt, Matthew, Dawn Skorczewski, Daila Lama, et al. “Pursuing Happiness: A Bedford Spotlight

Reader.” Does Spiritual Happiness Lead to Happiness?, Second, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019,

pp. 21–33.

Parfitt, Matthew, Dawn Skorczewski, and Graham Hill. “Pursuing Happiness: A Bedford Spotlight

Reader.” Can We Create Our Own Happiness?, Second, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019, pp.

308–13.

Parfitt, Matthew, and Dawn Skorczewski, and Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “Pursuing Happiness.” How

Happy Are You And Why?, 2nd ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019, pp. 179–97.