In "Distillation" by Hugo Martinez-Serros, the tones of reverence and discovery demonstrate the way a young boy learns the true nature of his father, and of a fathers love. The boy comes to understand his father through his actions one fateful day, and through that understanding learns to admire his father as the man he is.

Serros's diction emphasizes the power of the father as a hero first at the dump, and after as a man at home. During the storm the father became a "spreading giant" protecting his sons, "undaunted and "moving unflinchingly" in the powerful torrent of hail and wind. The apparent fear that the narrator shows is abated when his father takes charge, protecting and soothing his sons. The father metamorphosed into a great hulking mass that shielded his sons from the terrors that are outside the sanctuary he had erected. After the storm, at...