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Joshua Elwell

Professor Jon Beadle

English 115

30 September 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”, he 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 while circumstances playing a more minor role. In Sonja Lyubormirsky’s article,

“What Makes People Happy” takes the stance of happiness coming from genetics while

circumstances play 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
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people and credibility or ethos being somewhat circumstantial, logos proves to be the strongest

technique since it affects all readers rather than some with statistics and proof.

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. These studies greatly

strengthen Lyubormirsky’s article and makes it stand out when compared to the other author’s

arguments.

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
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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 like in Lyubormirsky’s article which makes

them weaker. 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.

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
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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. 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. 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

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.