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Jonathan Rios

Professor Ditch

15440

9-29-20

Project Space Essay

People are always on a journey to find true happiness yet most of them are looking for it

in all the wrong places. The following three articles try to support this notion by persuading the

audience that happiness can be found in other places that most people would not even think of

while utilizing the three rhetorical strategies to prove their argument. One article such as "The

Source of Happiness" by Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler delve deep into how one can change

their perception on life based on their mind, studies scattered throughout the article about people

being able to change their mood based on what they say about themselves, and the author’s past

accolades and titles being stated before the article formally starts. The other article "How Happy

Are You and Why?" by Sonia Lyumbomirsky talks also about chasing your true happiness with

bringing up past anecdotal experiences of people she had encountered that has been able to find

happiness through trouble times, bombardment of studies on happiness, and her credibility also

being brought up before the article even starts. The last of the three articles "Living with Less. A

Lot Less" by Graham Hill talks about Hill’s past experiences with his wealth and how that

wealth didn't really bring him true happiness, studies on how people are really attached to their

belongings and founded his own company TreeHugger. The authors in “The Source of Pursuing

Happiness” creates the most effective argument that makes the reader feel like they have total

control of their happiness while employing all three types of rhetoric. Such as, the strong ethos
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that refers to the author’s past accolades. Plenty of pathos being brought up especially by the

Dalai Lama on his experience with finding true happiness. The studies that Cutler refers to

throughout the entire article.

“The Source of Happiness” is a very well thought out article that attacks the reader’s

sense of reasoning, whether the author is credible or not, and emotional state of that said reader.

Both authors create a build of trust towards their credibility when it was first stated before the

article officially begins. Such as, one of the authors being regarded as “the Dalai Lama” (Dalai

Lama and Cutler 21) which is an extremely high and respectable status within his community

and Howard Cutler being a “American writer and psychiatrist” (Dalai Lama and Cutler 21).

Howard Cutler being in those two fields gains the respect from the reader because those two

fields are highly respectable. With that being said, it makes the reader feels a sense of security in

what the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler say and gained the inclination of taking what they say

to heart. The two stories that Howard Cutler brings up about his two friends’ differential

responses of happiness to situations they are in brings light to the reader’s emotional state. It

brings light to the reader’s emotional state because the two anecdotal experiences could heavily

reflect onto the reader’s experiences on trauma and how they handled it in the past and how can

they now handle it in the future. The Dalai Lama goes into finding true happiness as “…your

state of mind is key. It’s crucial” (24). The Dalai Lama has become very philosophical and this

in turn is hitting the reader’s emotional state because they are getting pieces of advice on life that

they can carry throughout their entire life. The two studies that were included in the article came

from prestigious universities showcasing that if they look at the positives of their lives, they can

experience “an increased sense of satisfaction within their lives” (Dalai Lama and Cutler 24).

The study is a form of logos and the study showcases that doing simple things that are positive
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can change the outlook of life. If the reader is not really an emotional person, they can very well

be attractive to this kind of reasoning and cannot really dispute this because the two studies are

coming from two universities that are held to a very high standard.

“How Happy Are You and Why?” by Sonia Lyubomirsky is a fantastic article that

utilizes all the three rhetorical strategies but has a heavy set of logos that might bored the reader.

Her ethos seems to be top notch meaning her credibility is very strong. Lyubomirsky is a

professor of psychology at University of California, Riverside who has “published more than

eighty articles and book chapters” (179). This strong credibility builds the writer’s

trustworthiness and therefore makes it difficult for the audience to dismiss the writer’s argument.

In the beginning of her article she includes three pieces of interviews of people who had different

experiences of happiness in their life. One example, a woman named Angela had faced adversity

all her life but found “deep satisfaction in helping others heal from their own wounds and

traumas”. (Lyubomirsky 180). This type of pathos may hit home to the reader since they can also

relate to the experience that Angela has encountered but has defied the odds. After reading this,

this can inspire the reader to have a positive outlook even if negative and traumatic events occur

since there is always a positive to look at. Furthermore, the author includes a heavy set of logos

such as the study regarding a set of twins and entire section on how some people that are missing

a certain type of gene could help lead to an increased state of depression. The logos she conveys

are very well executed but feels like the reader may get bored due to the overinvolvement of

these studies. If you are a person who is not susceptible to reasoning you may have not finished

the article due to the author’s logos. This is not a very good thing because if the reader does not

finish the article, they will miss the entire point of what you are trying to argue.
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Finally, “Living with Less. A Lot Less” by Graham Hill also has good combination of

rhetorical devices but may had made the reader feel like it was a little lackluster. For example,

him including his own personal anecdotal experiences would had been considered a good

example of pathos, however if he was able to include other people’s anecdotal experiences that

were similar to his, it would had strengthened his argument. His ethos is very strong, he is a

“Canadian journalist, entrepreneur and designer” (Hill 308) and a founder of tree hugger. When

the reader reads this, they get a sense that he is a very hardworking man and the whole point of

him getting rid of stuff was not because of money issues but rather for happiness. He also

includes logos, a study at UCLA states that “all of the mother’s stress hormones spiked during

the time of dealing with their belongings.” (Hill 310). He did this to back up his argument on

how people who have a lot material belongings stressed more than those who do not have very

much. This type of reasoning the author introduces in the article provides more evidence toward

his argument and makes the reader feel like he must take that specific study as a fact. Even

though, it was a well-thought out article, Graham Hill could had still included some more pathos

to make the reader more interested.

All three articles seem to do very well in explaining their argument while utilizing the

rhetorical strategies however, “The Source of Happiness”, did it the best and was the most well

executed out of the three. When it came to its credibility it was solid so was the other two articles

but that was not what made it the most effective. The pathos in the first two articles was very

well done with the third article being “Living with Less. A Lot Less.” a little short on the pathos.

As for the logos, all articles seem to get it right, but “How Happy Are You and Why?” seemed to

have a little too much logos boring the reader. The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler do a

magnificent job on getting the reader’s attention with their credibility, their own personal
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experiences, and studies they had accumulated to make it the most effective argument. Any

reader that has read “The Source of Happiness” will tell you that the article will leave you with

the key sense of being able to find true happiness within yourself.
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Works Cited

Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. “The Sources of Happiness,” book, edition or volume number,

publisher, publication date, pp. 21-33.

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

Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 179-197.

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.