“Somewhere in the Américas, many years after once-upon-a-time and long before happily-ever-after, a boy climbed the cobbled steps of an arched bridge in the tiny village of Santa Maria, in the country of the same name. He bounced a fútbol on each stone ledge. In the land of a hundred bridges, this was his favorite.”

Ryan frames Mañanaland as a legend through vivid imagery and classic fairy tale language. This magical atmosphere emphasizes themes of imagination and storytelling while giving the story a universal quality, bridging Max’s experiences with the reader’s own. Though some details are ambiguous, Max’s immediate environment is richly described through descriptions of landscape and architectural features like the cobbled steps and arched bridge. Ryan’s use of Spanish throughout the novel further evokes a sense of place. Santa Maria is a place steeped in legends, and the environment feeds Max’s imagination as it seems to come to life.

“This was his favorite spot to make up stories and wonder about big and bewildering things: How long it would take to grow up and become a man, if he would ever see what lay beyond the horizon, and why his mother left and whether he’d ever meet her.”

Max has a strong imagination and likes to contemplate the big things in life. This is especially so as Max is growing into adolescence with major changes and worries pressing on his mind. Max will reconcile these conflicts as he undergoes his spiritual journey as a guardian.

“‘What did she say’ Max whispered. ‘That you’re a poor motherless child and it’s not polite to talk about her.’ ‘How come?’ asked Max. Other kids had parents who didn’t live with them. The boy shrugged. ‘She said it might make you feel sad and unworthy. Want to play tag?’ As they began chasing each other, Max thought about what the boy had said. It wasn’t sadness he felt. It was a peculiar nothingness tucked behind a veil of secrecy that no one was willing to lift. Not Papá. Not Buelo. Not his neighbors or teachers. What did they know that he didn’t? He ran after the boy and the words echoed…poor…motherless…unworthy…”

In Chapter 3, Max has a flashback to when he was younger and first felt the weight of his mother’s absence. When a boy at school gets in trouble for asking about Max’s mother, Max begins to question why no one will talk to him about her.