Happiness is the greatest feeling ever that anyone would feel and willing to spend his life looking for it. Does money buy happiness or not? Many of us have heard this common question before, we are thinking and wondering all the time about this question, and it has started to be something old. Nevertheless, Gregg Easterbrook, who is an American writer work as a contribution editor for The Atlantic Monthly and The Washington Monthly magazines, wrote a long special article he called "The Real Truth About Money" for the Time Magazine on January 30, 2005. The article talks about the increasing of the income, the daily live, and the standard of living after the World War II (Easterbrook). Furthermore, his using of metaphors, isocolonic style, mathematical terms, and how the money relate to the happiness create some aesthetic and fabulous eloquence to the article that makes it strong, accurate, and well written.

In the first place, the metaphor which is "A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action which it is not literally applicable", has appeared profusely in the text. (Oxford). Gregg Easterbrook used metaphors to make implicit and hidden figures or meanings. For example, he said, "Every line concerning money and the things that money can buy would soar upward," (Real 1), Easterbrook was talking about a chart of American life after the Second World War, and the lines relevant to money would soar but a line in reality cannot actually soar or fly. However, he means that the lines in the chart will be elevated and rise higher and rapidly because he did not use the word "fly" that indicates raising higher but under control. To clarify, he is obviously implying that the lines that relevant to money would rise higher like a bird flying upward or a plane soaring in the sky because an increasing in the salaries occurred. The crux of the matter that such these metaphors could make a text readable, understandable, and more significant because they create imaginary pictures near the message and the idea to the reader's mind and show the writer's ability and skillfulness in writing.

Second, isocolon is a rhetoric term derived from Greek language and means  "A  in which a sentence is composed by two or more parts () perfectly equivalent in structure, length and rhythm it is called bicolon, tricolon, or tetracolon depending on whether they are two, three, or four" (Wikipedia). It is the repeating of homogeneous grammatical words or sentences because isocolons hold consistency and develop balanced thoughts. Gregg's article included many isocolons made his article powerful and stronger. As an example of tricolon he said, "...Than engaging in activities that create real fulfillment in life, like cultivating friendships, helping others, and developing a spiritual sense." (Real 1). This tricolon contains a structure of gerund and noun; it very useful device to convince. In addition to another illustration of tricolon in the text, Gregg started his penultimate paragraph saying, "Living standards, education levels, and other basic measures of U.S. social well-being have improved" (Real 3). In general, the tricolon or the isocolons add more effectivity and logic to the text, they create rhythm, beat, and balance in the article and they help represent clear ideas in small piece as well. As a result, isocolons make prose enjoyable and wonderful.

Third, Gregg had used many mathematical terms so the mathematical theme dominates in the text. In every single paragraph certainly there are many financial, accounting, and mathematical terms relate to money and math like (chart, statistical, size, doubled,  tripled, one-third, millions, money, income, square feet, many percentages and dollar symbol "$"). These words add more reliability and accuracy to the article because it show that this text had written based on accurate statistics and numbers, and the writer worked hard end up with such an article. 

Forth and finally, the main idea of the text is the real truth or value about money. Gregg talks about the happiness in general and a little bit about depression and their causes. In the beginning, Gregg refers to studies concern depression made by a sociologist at Erasmus University in Rotterdam called Ruut Veenhoven deduced that, "...The poor -- those in Europe earning less than about $10,000 a year -- are made unhappy by the relentless frustration and stress of poverty" (Real 1). Therefore, living under the poverty line is a reason of unhappiness. However, having lot of money and high income is not necessary a reason for happiness because the American generation after the Second World War believes that money cannot buy happiness. Gregg said, "In the Time poll, when people were asked about their major source of happiness, money ranked fourteenth." (Real 1). In addition, after many discussions and arguments the poll's outcome about the Americans was that in order for them to live comfortably and in a good condition, they need more money rather than their income level (Real 3). What is also weird about the happiness causes is a YouTube video called "How Much Money is LOVE Worth?" for Dr. Michael Stevens in a way similar to Gregg's way which is by determine the happy amount in money. Dr. Stevens talked about a UK study, researches looked at people who had heard that someone love them and they took the amount of happiness they felt, and compared it to the amount of happiness that the gamblers feel when they won large sums of money.  They conclude that hearing the phrase "I Love You" for the first time from someone you love is the equivalent happiness level of receiving $276,000. Moreover, looking to someone's eye you like helps to produce some enzymes in your body make you happier and living longer (Stevens). On both Gregg's opinion and Dr. Michael, money can really buy happiness; money is big reason for happiness but not the main or major ones and it is for a limited level.

In conclusion, after closely looking at "The Real Truth about Money", many things revealed. Using ubiquitous metaphors, ample of isocolons, plenty of math terms, and the secret of happiness make the article coherent and lucid and all indicate Gregg's proficiency and fluency in writing.

