There's More To Life Than Happiness Analysis

There’s More to Life Than Happiness, an article published by The Atlantic talks about life and what is needed to live wholesomely and disputes the importance of happiness. The work challenges readers to rethink the need for happiness and what would make their life worth living for. Emily Esfahani Smith, the author, hooks the reader with the life of a famous neurologist and Psychology icon, Viktor Frankl. She supplements her ideas by comparing them with Frankl’s ideas and stories. She does not attract readers with her own words, but with the implication of her ideas when in conjunction with not only Frankl’s life and words but also the studies of many others in the field as well. This piece first hooks the reader with Frankl’s unfortunate life story, being a prisoner in a concentration camp and being the only survivor out of his family. From there, Emily brings up an anecdote from Frankl’s life where he explains those who survived the camp tended to have more meaning and purpose in their life: a goal that they strived to meet regardless of the dire situation they were in at the time. Using this information, Emily creates the base of her argument: having more meaning and responsibilities makes life more wholesome and therefore gives people more reason to live. Living to be happy and nothing else brings a more …show more content…
Her quick transition from the history of Frankl’s life to the main idea of the essay could be seen as a bit forced and jarring, but I believe it was well alleviated by the convenient connection that Frankl and the thesis had. Frankl’s conclusion from his observations at the camp fit perfectly with Emily’s argument. The last sentence of the introduction was a quote that not only piques the reader’s interest with a question, but shows a bit of Frankl’s wittiness, solidifying his mental prowess in a