Amazing Grace

“Amazing Grace” is a hymn whose place in the novel is made intimate through a family’s memory of loss: Miriam Altman names it as her deceased brother David’s favorite, then sings it while her father plays the fiddle, drawing their grief into a shared act of remembrance.

The hymn and David’s memory

When Miriam’s father takes up the fiddle and bow, she tells him she tuned the instrument while he was out in the field. He begins to play; at the first notes, Miriam’s eyes fill with tears, and she sings in a high, pure voice. The music is not presented as performance alone: it gives the family a way to remember David together.

Miriam recalls that David sang alto and had a wonderful voice. Although he preferred lively songs, “Amazing Grace” was his favorite hymn. Her account places the song between the exuberance of his character and the loss that now defines the family’s remembrance of him.

Grief made shared

After the tune ends, John Altman is plainly moved and touches Miriam’s hair. Elizabeth raises her tearful face and begins to explain that David was their son, but breaks off before she can finish. She then recounts that he was only fourteen when his horse threw him as he chased a buffalo near Scott’s Bluff; he struck his head and was killed.

The scene lets the hymn carry what the family struggles to say directly. Miriam’s singing prompts Elizabeth’s account of David, while John’s playing and his response to his daughter turn private mourning into a moment shared with the family’s guests, Angel and Michael Hosea. The song’s significance rests in this concrete association: it is the hymn David loved, and its return gathers the living around his memory.