Gonzalez 1

Gabriela Gonzalez

Professor Beadle

ESW 113A

27 June, 2019

What Happiness Can Do

The differences, similarities, and arguments placed between these articles come in

different forms. Suffering, however, will always be in the absence of happiness. Happiness is

what every individual strives to be and is exclusive to everyone. Though happiness is largely

associated with wealth, power, and fame; True happiness within a person is satisfaction. Sonja

Lyubomirsky is a professor of psychology and has a Ph.D. in psychology in which she is also

the author of “How Happy Are You and Why?”. Graham Hill is a Canadian journalist the

founder of (treehuggers.com) and the author of “Living with Less. A Lot Less.” David Brooks

is a New York Times journalist who wrote the article “What Suffering Does”. Although each

author looks for happiness within themselves, they all have different thoughts about happiness

as they all believe happiness can be found in different ways.

The articles “What Suffering Does” by David Brooks and “How Happy Are You and

Why?” by Sonja Lyubomirsky both believe happiness and suffering is a state of mind. The first

thing that suffering does is “drag you deeper into yourself”(Brooks 285). It takes you to the core
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of yourself just to find that you aren’t who you believe to be but makes you astonished by what

new things you can accomplish from it and become happy. Everyone has their own independent

mind, therefore they can only be satisfied with their own original interpretation of happiness. As

to what Graham Hill thinks when he states, “Intuitively, we know that the best stuff in life isn’t

stuff at all, and that relationship, experiences, and meaningful work are the staple of a happy

life”(311). He disagrees that happiness is a state of mind. He believes that the life we choose to

live and what we can take from it determines our happiness and well being.

Each author has different thoughts in ways happiness can be found. Lyubomirsky, States

“Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions”(184). Your actions are what

make you happy. As for Hill, it's the other way around Hill claims “There isn’t any indication

that any of these things make anyone any happier; in fact, it seems the reverse may be

true”(308). He believes that no materialistic items in life will bring you the satisfaction as a

human being or experience in life will. Suffering makes you humble and appreciative of your

life for example “ Abraham Lincoln suffered through the pain of conducting a civil war, and he

came out with the Second Inaugural”( Brooks286). He chose to endure his suffering for the

nation. Therefore Brooks believes that suffering can lead you to become the person you're

meant to be and be happy with yourself. Lyubomirsky and Hill would disagree with the fact that

suffering could be anywhere near happiness. Every author’s argument is different.

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The arguments placed by the author, David Brooks brings us to realize if we deserve to

be happy. Beyond the individual's control “recovering from suffering is not like recovering from

a disease. Many people don’t come out healed they come out different”(Brooks286). No one

can morally say they're healed from a relatives death or grief, they can try but won't stop feeling

the pain. Suffering leads you into happiness once you learn to adapt to it. If you can never

overcome suffering or control what is going on in your life then do you really deserve to be

happy? For David Brooks happiness is circumstantial as for Sonja Lyubomirsky it’s more

within what mindset you choose to have.

The argument placed by Sonja Lyubomirsky is what makes people happy? And how

happy are you and why? As Lyubomirsky states, “In a nutshell, the foundation of happiness can

be found in how you behave, what you think, and what goals you set every day in your

life”(196). You can only find happiness within yourself not in others nor in the world.

Happiness can be so clear and easy for some people but not for all. One of the important

statements Lyubomirsky says is, “ If you’re not happy today, then you won’t be happy

tomorrow unless you take things into our own hands and take action." No one can tell you how

happy you truly are but yourself. She believes you can be happy if you choose to change your

state of mind and manage to control it. Graham Hill interpretation of happiness is almost as
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similar as Sonja Lyubomirsky, we shouldn’t be looking elsewhere but what's right in front of us

and within us.

The argument placed by the author Graham Hill asks us, can we create our own

happiness? As Hill claims “My success and the things it bought quickly changed from novel to

normal.” He became bored and unhappy with his life when he had all the reason to just enjoy it

all. The truth was that he was making his life “unnecessarily complicated”(309). The fondness

for items affected his life as so to us all. The idea that living a successful life will bring us

happiness is not true but we make our life difficult when we want more than we need. Hill says,

“It took 15 years, great love and a lot of travel to get rid of all the inessential things I had

collected and lived a bigger, better, richer life with less”(309). With fewer worries and more

time on your hands, you can start to do what really makes you happy. All three authors have an

audience to which they write their articles formally to.

The author Graham Hill writes in a formal tone as his perspective of his own life to make

the audience take him knowledgeable of his choice of lifestyle living. He uses logic and

reasonable understanding vocabulary so that teenagers and upper-class men have a better

understanding of his article and don’t make the same mistakes he made. The author David

brooks write in a straightforward petty tone as he wants us to understand the meaning of true

suffering. His audience is the people who have been suffering for a while now and want them to
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get the true meaning behind all the suffering people go through. The author Sonja Lyubomirsky

writes in a realistic formal tone and uses pathos when talking about real human experiences

with happiness. As not all the people she interviewed said they were genuinely happy, her

audience was able to get a better understanding of what it means to be happy.

In the article by Sonja Lyubomirsky, Graham Hill, and David Brooks all had a difference,

similarity, and an outstanding argument about pure happiness. Lyubomirsky goal was to open

the audience mindset and enforce us to find where happiness comes from, that would be from

our hearts. Everything that we need is right in front of us and we need to learn to take it in and

appreciate it. Hill also thinks that we should appreciate life when he gave us his whole life story

to reflect upon and take into consideration that all we truly need in life is meaningful

experiences and to build relationships. Once we get rid of all the unnecessary stuff we have in

our lives, we will live better and happier. Brooks main point was to show the audience that pain

is inevitable. As much as we like to believe that it will go away just by ignoring it, it won't

unless you face it and take action to overcome it and become who you were meant to be. It’s not

always a bad thing to come out different as much as it scares us.

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Works cited

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

Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford st. Martin’s 2016, pp. 284-287.

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

Skorczewski, Bedford st. Martin’s 2016, pp. 179- 197.

Hill, Graham. “ living with Less. A Lot Less.” Pursuing Happiness, edited by Dawn

Skorczewski, Bedford st. Martin’s 2016, pp. 308-313.