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Miriam Juarez

Professor Beadle

English 115

December 5, 2019

Happiness and the different strategies

The articles that we have read, each one had their own view on happiness. In todays modern

society we tend to perceive how happiness is justified. We see happiness as a way of being able

to move on from the hardships, but what does that really mean? Articles like “What Suffering

Does” by David Brooks, “Living with Less, A Lot Less” by Graham Hill, and “How Happy are

you and Why?” by Sonja Lyumbomirsky each one of these articles gave a different perspective

as to how people view happiness. Out of the three articles I read, the most effective one to me is

by author David Brooks. In his article “What Suffering Does” he is able to connect with the

reader because most people are captivated by their own suffering. They have an emotional

connection to this article because at one point in their life they felt pain and suffering. The

question I do ask is how exactly do the other articles by Hill and Lyumbomirsky contribute

towards happiness?

We as people try an maximize our very own happiness, the way a certain event can change

our emotion. Each one of these articles uses different strategies to grasp the readers attention, but

how exactly does this contribute to happiness? We start off with Sonja Lyubomirsky article

“How Happy are you and Why?”. In her article she gives certain examples based of off people’s

personal matters. She uses theoretical strategies like ethos and pathos to give herself credibility

as a professor at UC Riverside, as well as give the reader an emotional appeal to the individuals
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she interviewed. For instance, she interviews a woman named Angela, who grew up in an

emotional and abusive household. By providing an emotional appeal the reader can connect with

Angela because of the up’s and down’s she went through. Eventually prevailing, from having to

file for bankruptcy to attending college full-time and earning her degree. Lyubomirsky manages

to use ethos and pathos effectively, but when it came to logos, what exactly was the logical

explanation for the way Sonja described Angela in the interview. She states, “Angela is thirty-

four and one of the happiest people that I interviewed” (Lyubomirsky). To some people not

being financially stable can weigh that person down, both mentally and physically, but I guess to

Angela I didn’t matter, she found happiness within her daughter, but what if the tables were

turned and you had everything you could of ever wanted.

There are certain things in life that can change the way happiness is can be seen whether it is

a new promotion or perhaps gaining a new investment. This next article written by Graham Hill

titled “Living with Less, A Lot Less”, author Graham Hill gives examples on his own personal

experience. He uses ethos, paths, and logos, he establishes ethos as his credibility as an

entrepreneur, and giving logical explanations as to why he sold his company. Hill gives

examples on how he felt being flushed with cash and gaining brand new riches. He gave a logical

explanation as to how he truly felt with all these new essentials, he states “somehow this stuff

ended up running my life, or a lot of it; the things I consumed, ended up consuming me” (Hill).

This connects with the reader based on the solemn fact of trying to find an explanation as to why

he felt so unhappy, even with all the material things in his life. This easily connects with pathos

because he has a personal and emotional connections towards these essentials. They make him

feel unhappy, feeling like he’s losing his old self. Even with everything he had, he eventually

decided to get rid of all of it. He was losing his happiness and was blinded by all the materialistic
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brands and all the electronics, and unnecessary things. He found his true happiness within

himself, friends, and family. He experienced many emotions with his rise to the top, he was

financially stable, but choose to give it all up for a simpler lifestyle. This article used effective

strategies by using all three rhetorical strategies (ethos, pathos, and logos), but how exactly does

this article compare to David Brooks, “What Suffering Does”.

Happiness is everywhere, behind every smile and every laugh there is a story waiting to be

told. This last article “What Suffering Does” by David Brooks gives certain real-life examples

that any reader can relate too. Using ethos, pathos, and logos to represent and give an overview

of what it is like to find your very own true form of happiness. He uses ethos to show his

credibility as a column writer for The New York Time’s. David brooks uses logos and gives a

logical explanation as to the different way suffering has a affected a person true from of

happiness. For examples in his article he states “recovering from suffering is not like recovering

from a disease. Many people don’t come out healed, they come out different” (Brook). This

quote will automatically catch the reader’s attention straight off the bat, because at one point in

time we would hide our pain and just put it towards the side. We would distract ourselves in

order to forget that were hurting inside. We don’t take the proper time to heal instead we find

something to fill the void, but eventually it will implode into our personal life. Not only does he

use ethos and logos, but he also uses pathos. Pathos is probably used the most in this article, it is

shown through the article. The reader can from an emotional connection towards this article

because we have all gone through a certain hurt that caused us to suffer in quiet. We blamed

ourselves for other mistakes or even our own mistakes as to what had happened. Brooks articles

gives the reader a sense of comfort, that you are not alone, you’re not the only one who’s tried to

hide the pain or tried to fill a void. That everybody suffers and they way you can overcome this,
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can prove just how much you are willing to go. Be able to earn you own form of happiness, find

the best in all the situations you have been. The suffering you endure will just become another

distant memory.

From Lyubomirsky, to Hill and eventually Brooks, each of these articles used rhetorical

strategies to connect with the reader. Lyubomirsky used ethos and pathos, but Hill and Brooks

both used all three rhetorical strategies (ethos, pathos, and logos). Out of the three articles,

Brooks gave a more specific approach. This article all alone can connect to readers because they

know what its like to feel pain and to suffer through an occurrence in their personal lives. We

know how it’s like to lose someone, the pain you get from them not being there anymore.

Finding a way to fill the void with something that will distract your mind and your thoughts from

thinking about them. At one point in time or even within a person’s lifetime, happiness

nowadays just feels like a memory, that’s slowly disappearing, and it seems hard to get back, but

eventually well find a way to regain the happy memories. Well learn to get rid of the bad

memories and replace them with happy ones. Change the way we see our true form of self and

gain a new experience.

All these articles combined gave a new meaning of finding happiness. Being able to find

peace within yourself or even getting rid of the inessential things in your life. Happiness is a

virtue to every little thing in your life, and its not something you can just let go, happiness stays

with you forever and when your feeling a sense of pain or an empty void, you will always have

those memories. Those certain memories that come to mind when you least expect it and

remember that you will get back to that place. You just need to power through and remember

that the only person that can control your happiness is yourself. True happiness can occur

without having to be forced, being surrounded by friends and loved ones. That’s happiness.
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Work Cited

Brooks, David, “What Suffering Does”. Pursuing Happiness, edited by Mathew Parfitt and

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

Hill, Graham, “Living with Less, A Lot Less’. Pursuing Happiness, edited by Mathew Parfitt

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

Lyubomisky, Sonja, “How Happy are you and Why?”. Pursuing Happiness, edited by Mathew

Parfitt and Dawn Skorezewski, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2016. Pp. 179-197