Character Analysis
Marco, our young protagonist, is quite the imaginative thinker. In this way, he stands in for all of the kids in the world—he finds magic and fun in everything that he sees. Even though he's making everything up himself, he still finds delight in all things:
An elephant pulling a thing that's so light
Would whip it around in the air like a kite.
But he'd look simply grand
With a great big brass band! (63-66)
He loves to see the things that show up in his imagination, from the elephant to the big brass band to the Mayor's procession. Marco isn't the kind of person to just walk down the street and sigh because everything's boring. Nope, he's going to make it interesting.
A Teller of Tales
Marco makes things happen (and he makes them interesting) by telling stories. Unfortunately, Marco's dad doesn't really see the value in his stories. He says:
"Stop telling such outlandish tales." (9)
There's a reason Marco tells stories, though. It's because he can actually shape the world when he does so. He's just a kid, after all, so he can't really change the course of the universe for real, but he can change things in his mind:
Say—anyone could think of that,
Jack or Fred or Joe or Nat—
Say, even Jane could think of that.
But it isn't too late to make one little change.
A sleigh and an ELEPHANT! There's something strange! (50-54)
Marco takes real pride in the things that he comes up with because it's tied into his identity; he tells fantastic stories and he does it well. Even if no one else appreciates that (ahem, Dad), he'll still do it because it's part of how he understands not only the world around him, but himself, too.