The book: The Norton Introduction to Literature (Shorter Thirteenth Edition)
In his philosophical essay, “A Little of That Human Touch: Knowledge and Empathy in the Music of Bruce
Springsteen,” Scott Calef argues that there is a special kind of knowledge “which Springsteen imparts
abundantly” in his songs. Calef adds that this knowledge is a “knowledge of what something is like” and that it
is not limited “to things we have experienced ourselves.” Indeed, “A gifted artist” like Springsteen “can really
expand our horizons.”
Springsteen’s songs do not do this by accident or luck. He expands “painstaking efforts . . . to get nuances and
descriptions exactly right,” to make sure “details and moods are captured perfectly.” Calef quotes Springsteen
as adding that beyond the telling details he has to pull out of himself “an emotional center.” These things
together “shed light on” the lives and experiences of those he sings about.
I want you to write a 1000-1500 word (4-6 pages) essay that examines how a poet and short story writer use
nuances, descriptions, telling details, and an emotional center to give us the same kind of knowledge of what
war is like.
The poet is Wilfred Owen and his poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est” (913) attempts to capture the experience of
trench warfare in World War I. The story writer Tim O’Brien, in his story, “The Things They Carried” (609-622),
attempts to capture the experience of a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War.
How do these two writers, poet and story writer, provide us—each in his own unique way—the experience of
what war is like? How do they expand our horizon about soldiers at war?
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