What Is The Irony In The Short Story Wine On The Desert

1) In the short story “Wine on the Desert” by Max Brand, the main character of this short story whose name is Durante. Durante expresses the trait of planning before he acts as the book states that Durant would have a twenty-four hour head start before the people find the dead body. This shows that he has most likely planned when he would murder the victim so he would have a maximum time to get escape. Durante also demonstrates the trait of arrogance as he enters Tony's house and drinks Tony's water without even asking even though water is very scared in the desert. Durante is also dictator like as the short story states that Durante says, “Tony, come out-side with me commanded Durante” (p. 106) implies that despite that Durante is a guest at Tony's house and is also a friend of Tony's, he still …show more content…
When Tony states “This is old wine. This is my father's wine. Eleven years old” (p. 105) implies that the wine that Tony is serving to Durante is really good as wine tastes better the more it is aged. When Durante blows up Tony’s water tanks and laughs about how the sheriff and his posse are going to drink plenty of the good wine but die of thirst as Durante himself states that no one could cross the desert with only wine. It is ironic how Durante himself ends up being stuck in the middle of the desert with no water but good tasting wine. Irony is added to it when it starts to rain only a few hours later when Durante dies. This is ironic since as it rarely rains in the desert, if Durante were to have been alive for few more hours, he would have survived as it starts raining a few hours after he died which implies that the Tony, the sheriff, and his posse are going to survive, having a good laugh at Durante as he had died right before it rained, when Durante himself though that he would have a good laugh as the sheriff and posse realize that there is no water and die of