Analysis Of The Affair Of Coulter's Notch

IDENTITY SWAP ON COULTER’S NOTCH
“The Affair of Coulter’s Notch” is a short story by Ambrose Bierce. The short story has the idea of a white officer turning into a black slave. The author wanted to associate race and family. The main characters in the story are the Captain Coulter, the General, and Colonel. This story portrays the effects of war and different ideas on personal or identity transformation. The battle scenes reflect the time period of the Civil War and go into depth about Captain Coulter’s position in the war, family, and true identity.
The African American race is represent in this short story through the officer’s transformation in the Civil War. The war paints the image of these soldiers by transforming their racial identification. Naked, inarticulate, and working mechanically with skin that is “reeking black,” Coulter’s men enact a ritualized parody of slave labor, ordered by white men to work themselves to death to destroy, rather than support, the plantation

house and its orchard. The irony becomes apparent in this scene of the story by the way the author describes the men. Their descriptions can relate them to slaves and the true meaning of the Civil War.

The different conflicts in the story makes the message more effective.

Two conflicts occur in the story, man vs. self and man vs. society. Man vs. self is a better way to explain the battle of Coulter with himself. Him going from a white officer to a black slave was a conflict within himself that was influenced by the war. The dissolution of personal identity is the central idea and main conflict. Man vs. society is another conflict in the story. The military or soldiers had to face the people in the society for the war.
“The Affair of Coutler’s Notch” is told in the 3rd person point of view and give a little background on Coulter, stating that he was originally from the south. This narrative perspective gives a chance for more dialogue and different points in the story. Colonel, the General, and other military soldiers all contributed to the story. Third person point of view also helped the short story with text effectiveness. As a reader I was able to comprehend the characters

better.
Coulter’s abrupt transformation from white officer to black slave, then, is the product and the reflection of a racial definition imposed on him by an act of recognition. It occurs because of the visible effects of his having successfully carried out his military responsibility, an act that simultaneously marks him as black and destroys his family. Since the War was dominant of white Union soldiers, Coulter’s race transformation labeled him as powerless. As I reflect on the story itself, it shows the idea of a person who chooses to protect his family and country but kills in family in the process. It also represents the scarifies an individual has to make. By him executing his duties he lost himself and his family. The war experience used him as a symbol, by comparing him to black coal and mournful tear.