The Narrow Road Between Desires

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of physical abuse and child abuse.

“So when Bast glided through the empty inn, he played the floorboards like an instrument. A sigh, a pause, a click, a creak. Sounds that would catch a guest just drifting off to sleep. But to someone who lived there…it was nothing.”

Rothfuss uses onomatopoeia like “click” and “creak” to capture the innocuous sounds that Bast intentionally makes as he sneaks out of the inn. The simile describing how he plays “the floorboards like an instrument” expresses Bast’s familiarity with the inn as well as his superhuman senses and alertness. Throughout the story, Bast is often described as an artist. The musical simile helps to establish the pride that Bast takes in his work, especially when that work involves tricking people. The passage helps build anticipation by raising the question of why Bast is being stealthy as he leaves the inn.

“Bast stood to his full height and grinned, his face sweet and sly and wild. In that moment, he looked less like a rakish young man, and more a naughty child who had stolen the moon and planned to eat it like a thin, pale silver cake. His smile was like the final crescent of remaining moon, sharp and white and dangerous.”

The author uses polysyndeton, the stylistic addition of coordinating conjunctions where none are grammatically necessary, in the phrases “sweet and sly and wild” and “sharp and white and dangerous.” This literary device and the simile comparing Bast’s smile to “the final crescent of remaining moon” describe his physical appearance and establish some of his key personality traits, particularly his penchant for mischief.