Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Noel Lopez
Professor Beadle
English 115
9 December 2019
Finding Happiness
David Brooks in “What Suffering Does”, Graham Hill in “Living with Less. A Lot
Less.”, and Sonja Lyubomirsky in “How Happy Are You and Why?” all give their take on
happiness in order to convince the audience how happiness is affected. Brooks speaks of how
suffering can affect happiness, Hill talks about how living a less materialistic life can bring love
and happiness, and Lyubomirsky claims that happiness is connected to our genetic makeup. Hill
gives the most effective argument in his article because he uses his own experiences to create the
sense of love and happiness thus using pathos and ethos, and he uses logos in the form of
Using pathos is an effective way of making a claim because the audience feels as they
can connect with what the author or speaker is saying. Hill states “My life was full love and
adventure and work I cared about. I felt free and I didn’t miss the car and the gadgets and house;
instead I felt as if I quit a dead-end job.” (Hill, 311) This is a way of using pathos because he
connected with the audience since the reader might not be happy with their life or job. Using this
makes his argument more effective because he shows exactly how changing his life made him
Brooks in the article “What Suffering Does” misses the use of pathos in his argument,
this makes it hard for the audience to connect with the piece since they do not know what the
emotion being portrayed is. “Just as failure is sometimes just failure (and not your path to
becoming the next Steve Jobs) suffering is sometimes just destructive, to be exited as quickly as
possible.” (Brooks, 284) Reading this the audience might get the wrong idea and might interpret
In “How Happy Are You and Why?”, Lyubomirsky talks about emotions relating to
genetics, however she does not use pathos to support her argument. In the article it reads, “It
turns out that depression is associated with a particular gene, called the 5-HTTLPR, which comes
in two forms, the long and the short.” (Lyubomirsky, pg 192) Using science to explain emotion
can make people confused and not want to continue reading the piece, especially those with
lower education that do not understand the concept. Also, the lack of emotional connection using
pathos makes the audience more inclined to not want to take anything from the piece. 9
Ethos makes the audience take the claim seriously since they believe they can trust the
author or speaker because they went through the experience or they have important names in
place. Hill uses his companies to show ethos in order to get the audience to see how he has lived
with less but still had a great life. “As the guy who started TreeHugger.com, I sleep better
knowing I’m not using more resources than I need. I have less – and enjoy more.” (Hill, 312)
The audience reading will feel as if they will be happier with themselves because they want to do
better for the environment. This makes Hill a great writer because he connected it with the
In Brooks’ piece he speaks about what suffering does to a person however his use of
ethos is not strong because he is not credible to speak about emotions. “Born in Toronto, Canada,
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in 1961, he grew up in New York City and earned a B.A. in history from University Colorado
(1983).” (Brooks, 284) Him being a history major does not make him qualified to speak about
happiness because he did not study it, nor does he have a background in psychology. Also, he
does not speak of his own experiences within the piece, this makes the audience question his
credibility even more, if he connected with the audience the way Hill did then Brooks article
Lyubomirsky uses ethos to show how his statistics are credible, however this can make
the audience feel like they cannot relate or understand because the names or words used might
not be known by the reader. “From the Greek philosopher Aristotle to the father of
psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud to Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, writers and thinkers have
offered wide-ranging definitions of happiness.” (Lyubomirsky, pg 184) The use of this can
confuse audience that are not aware of these individuals, it will make them not want to keep
reading the article because they will just get more confused as more names are being brought up.
If she would have given details on who they were the audience would feel more comfortable
reading the piece. The use of ethos did not help her because, just like Brooks, she failed to
Logos is an important part of an argument because it helps get the author’s point across,
using statistics makes the reader trust the piece since it shows accurate data on the subject. Hill in
“Living with Less. A Lot Less.” Uses logos to show how stressful in can be to have so much
materialistic things in your home. “In a study published last year titled “Life at Home in the
and found that all of the mothers’ stress hormones spiked during the time they spent dealing with
their belongings.” (Hill, pg 310) This helps make his claim because it shows how stressful it can
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be to have so many belongings. Using this makes the audience connect with the piece more
Brooks’ usage of logos in his article is something that can be considered however it is not
as impressive as Hill. Brook’s article reads, “When people are thrust down into these deeper
zones, they are forced to confront the fact the fact they cant determine what goes on there.” This
is a good use of logos because it seems logical that people would think this, however it is not a
good use because the audience might not want to hear that because it does not comfort them.
Reading this they can not connect with it and may not have a takeaway function.
The use of graphs by Lyubomirsky is a good way to use logos however it might make
three reader see themselves differently. In page 184 a pie chart is shown, it shows how different
things effect our happiness, and in page 187 a bar graph is shown, has statistics on happiness
score based on generation. Some readers might think that there is something wrong with them
since their generation might have gotten a lower score, and the use of the pie chart makes them
even more concerned since it says that they have a set happiness point based on their genetics, so
they will start to think they cannot be happier and will continue to be in a saddened state.
In the article “Living with Less. A Lot Less.” Graham Hill gives the most effective
argument because he connects with the audience through pathos, uses ethos to be credible and
logos by using statistics. The way Hill used the rhetoric strategies to make the audience feel as if
they can relate to his past experiences and they can trust him is what made his argument more
effective. Brooks did not use pathos to connect with his audience and speaks about something
that he is not credible to speak of. Lyubomirsky’s use of credible sources confuses the audience
because people may not know all the names and words that were noted.
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Work Cited
Brooks, David. “What Suffering Does.” Pursuing Happiness, edited by Matthew Parfitt and
Hill, Graham. “Living with Less. A Lot Less.” Pursuing Happiness, edited by Matthew Parfitt
Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “How Happy Are You and Why?” Pursuing Happiness, edited by Matthew
Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 179-197.