Character Analysis
Cruel and Loyal
Basta has a "rasping cat's tongue voice" (13.63), and looks to go with it. His face is:
[…] thin, sharply angular, with close-set eyes […] Basta was not a tall man, and his shoulders were almost as narrow as a boy's, but Meggie held her breath when he took a step toward her. She was afraid of him. She had never been so afraid of anyone before, and it wasn't because of the shotgun in his hand. He had an aura of fury about him, of something keen and biting. (13.81)
Meggie immediately recognizes Basta as sort of exceptional—note that she is more afraid of him than anyone else she's ever met—and she's right to do so. Of Capricorn's men, he's the only one to wear "a snow-white shirt […] with a red flower in the buttonhole of his jacket, a red flower like a warning" (14.4). In other words, though Capricorn surrounds himself with evil minions, Basta stands out from the crowd.
He's also cruel. He regularly beats and kicks the dogs that Capricorn's men use to track people, justifying it by saying that if you don't they'll bite (21.33) Um, maybe they try to bite you because you beat them? Just a thought. Funnily enough, Fenoglio characterizes Basta as:
One of the best villains I ever thought up. A rabid dog, but not half as bad as my other dark hero Capricorn. Basta would have let his heart be torn out for Capricorn, but his master is a stranger to such loyalty. (24.60)
It's interesting that Basta is cruel to dogs, and yet Fenoglio calls him a dog, isn't it? Dustfinger, too, thinks of Basta as "Capricorn's rabid dog" (26.14). What do you make of this? Do you think that Basta's cruelty to dogs might somehow be a way of expressing resentment he feels toward himself for behaving like such a loyal pup to Capricorn? Or is it just evidence of his evil spirit? We think you could argue either way.
What Fenoglio says rings true, though—Basta is loyal to Capricorn, almost dog-like in his faithfulness. Fenoglio demonstrates this further, in a quiet conversation with Capricorn, saying:
I always knew he was an unhappy boy before you picked him up […] it's terribly easy to persuade children that they are worthless. Basta was convinced of it. Not that you taught him any better, oh no! Why would you? But suddenly here was someone to whom he could devote himself, someone who told him what to do—he'd found a god, Capricorn, and if you treated him badly, well, who says that all gods are kindly? (34.35)
In other words, Basta was ripe for the picking. So when Capricorn discards him, it is one of the worst things that could possibly happen to Basta—he just… shuts down: "his face was as vacant as a dead man's […] he crouched on the floor in the corner and sat as motionless as a doll that no one wants to play with" (55.22). So though Basta is just about as evil as he comes, we see that perhaps the origin of this lies in a deep-seeded belief that no one will ever love him.
Superstitious Sir
For such a jerk, Basta is strangely superstitious. He won't kill cats because it's bad luck, and there's a whole list of other things Basta avoids for similar reasons. We never really find out why Basta is so freaky about superstitions and luck, but Dustfinger has a hypothesis:
Sometimes Dustfinger thought Basta's constant fear of curses and sudden disaster probably arose from his terror of the darkness within himself, which made him assume that the rest of the world must be exactly the same. (52.3)
Perhaps, in other words, Basta doesn't just cause fear—he feels it too. Though he does all sorts of awful stuff in this book, when we really think about him, there's something the tiniest bit sympathetic about Basta, isn't there? Feel free to disagree, of course—Basta's definitely earned it through his actions.
Oddly, Basta is something of a ladies' man… emphasis on the something. He fancies womenfolk, though they don't exactly fancy him back—"Almost all the women in the village kept away from Basta, but he didn't keep away from them" (33.32)—and we learn from Dustfinger that "Basta's breath smelled of mint, fresh and sharp. Apparently a girl he'd once wanted to kiss had told him he had bad breath. The girl had regretted it, but ever since then Basta chewed peppermint leaves from morning to night" (37.24). He definitely doesn't go about it the right way, but again we see that Basta craves attention and affection.
Unfortunately, though, Basta seems to think he's owed a certain amount of luck, respect, and lovin' from the ladies. He's confident enough to take what he wants, regardless of whom he hurts to get it—which is seriously not okay behavior. It makes us extra glad that we've never run into him.
Temper, Temper
Basta gets really angry, really fast… which doesn't always work out well for him. Capricorn rebukes him at one point, saying: "'You're slipping, Basta! […] Your hot temper clouds your judgment'" (34.8). Well, duh, but hearing it from Capricorn is no doubt a blow to Basta (see above for his whole loyalty shtick).
When Meggie is visiting Dustfinger and Resa in the crypt shortly before the execution, Basta's temper gets him in trouble. He hits Meggie for concealing a note from him, and then Dustfinger taunts him by saying, "'Well, how about it? […] Do you dare come in here with me, or would you rather go on hitting little girls?'" (49.38). And Basta falls for it:
He was panting with rage like a man who had run too far and too fast. Fingers trembling, he put a key into the lock of the cell. (49.39)
Bummer for Basta, getting so worked up just enables Dustfinger to get the knife away from him, and from there, to lock Basta into the cell. Oops—that whole temper thing didn't really work out too well for him.
For whatever reason, Basta doesn't disappear when Capricorn dies and half his men vanish. Nobody has any idea why, but before they can find out, Basta threatens Resa and escapes into the night. Will we be seeing him again? Hopefully only in our nightmares.