The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

“One day, exquisite agony built and released, built higher, released more forcefully until slow heat spread between her fingers, up her arms, stung at the points of her bound breasts and then shot straight down. Her hands flew off the keyboard—she crouched as though she had been shot, saw yellow spots and then experienced a peaceful wave of oneness in which she entered pure communion. She was locked into the music, held there safely, entirely understood.”

This passage depicts Agnes/Sister Cecilia’s unconscious sexual awakening through the sensual power of music—specifically, her profound connection to Chopin. Erdrich uses sensory language that conflates spiritual and physical ecstasy, suggesting that music can function as a bridge between repressed desire and conventional religious expression. The breathless, eager repetition in the phrase “built and released, built higher, released more forcefully” mimics both musical crescendo and sexual climax, while the narrative’s mention of “peaceful wave of oneness” and “communion” employ distinctly religious vocabulary to describe a secular experience. This moment establishes music as an outlet for powerful, complex emotions that Agnes cannot otherwise express.

“Agnes looked into his face, openly at last, showing him the great weight of feeling she carried, though not for him. As she had for her Mother Superior, she removed her clothing carefully and folded it, only she did not stop undressing at her shift but continued until she slipped off her large tissue-thin bloomers and seated herself naked at the piano. Her body was a pale blush of silver, and her hands, when they began to move, rose and fell with the simplicity of water.”

When Agnes strips naked and plays the piano for Berndt, she transforms a potentially sexual encounter into a transcendent artistic performance. Her methodical act of undressing and folding her clothes reveals her calm, ordered mind and the ritualistic nature of her art. When Erdrich indulges in lyrical descriptions of Agnes’s body, speaking caressingly of the “pale blush of silver” of Agnes’s skin and the hands that move with “the simplicity of water,” these images imbue the protagonist with an ethereal quality that elevates the scene beyond mere sexuality.