Rhetorical Analysis Of There Is More To Life Than Being Happy

The article “There is More to Life than Being Happy” uses a mixture of ethos, pathos, and logos to show the audience that the pursuit of meaning is far more important than the pursuit of happiness. Emily Esfahani Smith is a well know editor that writes about psychology, culture and relationships. She graduated from Dartmouth and was also the editor of the Dartmouth review. In this particular article, Emily talks about a neurologist who was contained in a concentration camp and how he survived with a motivation of still living on. She also talks about highly credible people performing different research that shows living with a purpose positively affects one’s life more than living to be happy.
“There’s more to life than being happy” uses …show more content…
The article states that Viktor’s family were sent to a concentration camp and most of them died. Emily Smith emphasizes that even Viktor’s wife died in the camp while pregnant. Humans display strong empathy when it comes to the endangerment of babies and young children. The thought of a man losing his wife along with his potential baby makes one’s heart fill with sorrow and pity, thus grabbing the attention of the reader. Another example of pathos in this article is when Viktor came across two prisoners in the camp whom had nothing to live for. Viktor helps the two realize their meaning in life, which becomes their motivation to survive. One inmate was a scientist who had started writing books and did not …show more content…
Kathleen Vohs of Stanford and Jennifer Aaker both suggest that happiness is associated with selfishness and that living a meaningful life brings joy to others by giving. This makes the reader want to become a better person and eventually think of himself as a giver and contributing a purpose bigger that one’s own wants and needs. Roy Baumeister states that animals achieve happiness but what sets humans apart is that we can have meaning in our lives. This makes the reader want to be different from animals and express their human uniqueness by living a meaningful life. It is very affective because Roy Baumeister is highly recognized for his work, being a leader in research and works with John Tierney, who was named an ISI highly cited scientific researcher. The two are trust worthy and very experienced. Viktor is one of the most credible individuals because he has gone through the passing of his family, being contained in a concentration camp, and also being a leading psychiatrist and neurologist. Viktor states that providing meaning in his life has helped him survive, and even though he went through so much suffering, he still lived a quality life. Viktor gave up going to America, which a good career, big opportunities and safety awaited him, and decided to stay with his parents because it was his purpose to take care of them. This is affective